4i3 
in three classes of ground, one damp but drained, and giving 
traces of moisture in the dry season at a depth of 60 centimeters. 
A similar "soil but a little higher ground and a less sandy place 
where in the dry season moisture is only met with at from 6 to 
10 meters deep. * From the figures and photograph it appears that 
the trees make a very fair growth, in all these soils and those in 
the very dry soil are not apparently appreciably behind the 
others. 
Manihot Glaziovii has failed and its cultivation given up. _ Fiats 
clast ica grows well but the plants are young as yet. Experiments 
in the use of the'Gutta percha of Dichopsis Krantziana , a plant 
allied to our I), obovata for cable purposes, are being made by 
the Minister of Post and Telegraphs, who seems to think it m vy 
do well. This gutta, however, as imported into Singapore ha* a 
‘very poor reputation 1 am informed. 
Rubber in Sierra Leone. — The annual colonial report while re- 
cording a small increase in the export of rubber from Sierra Leone 
last year gives a table of exports of previous years showing a steady 
fall from 13.316 cwts. in 1896 to 952 cuts, in 1903. This rubber is 
chiefly obtained from Landolphia owariensis , a rubber vine which 
has long been cultivated in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, but 
makes a somewhat slow growth. Its rubber last year fetched 
3/8-3 / 8 b per pound, a rise of a shilling a pound on that of the 
previous year. 
On the Gold Coast Para rubber and Funtumia cultivated in the 
Government Gardens at Aburi gave good results, the Para rubber 
being reported on by English brokers as good as that of Ceylon. 
It is thought that the soil on the North West frontier is suitable for 
cultivation, and the natives are being stimulated to plant it. Cas- 
tilloa does not seem to be satisfactory. 
Artificial Rubbers. — Those planters and rubber dealers who are 
apt to get scared over rumours of the discovery of cheap artificial 
rubbers would do well to read an article on the subject in the 
India-Rubber Journal for October of this year where a number of 
these hoaxes are described. Among them is a story of an inventor 
who made it from “some grass in the East Indies where it could 
be procured in vast quantities for the price of cutting it” (doubtless 
Ealang). His samples were excellent, but unfortunately they proved 
to be genuine imported Para rubber, and the mess he made with 
the grass w r as a different thing altogether. Other “rubbers” con- 
sisted of tar and boracic acid, and such like things, yet it appears 
that there are manufacturers w 7 ho pay large sums to inventors for 
these kinds of inventions and would-be planters who are scared at 
them. 
Rubber at the St. Louis Exhibition. — The Ceylon rubber exhibit 
at this show is noted in the India Rubber World as not large, but 
particularly fine, consisting of 200 discs w hich were easily the best 
crude rubber ever seen in the United States. Mr. H. C. PEARSON 
interviewed the high officials of the Exhibition and got a letter sent 
