46 
Result of work with Messrs. Hogan & Co., Limited , Fibre 
Scraping Machine : 
• 
Wet out of 
1 machine from 
j Gross weight 
of leaves 
Wet to dry 
Dry fibre, 
from Gross 
weight of 
leaves 
Karatas ... 
Abaca {Manila hemp) 
Pisang (common banana) 
Pineapple ... ... i 
Aloes (Fourcroya) ... .... 
8-io% 
6 - 54 % 
S'2 8% 
4 ' 5 °% 
S'06% 
_ ( 
2 g’i 6 % 
IS- 18 % 
II ‘ 49 % 
2T77% 
33' 33% 
2 ’37% 
'■‘ 7 % 
0 - 6 !% 
>■ 25 % 
2-69% 
ON THE FRUIT USED FOR COLORING 
BEAN-CHEESE. 
Specimens of the iruit used in coloring bean-cheese as described 
in Bulletin were sent to Kew for identification where they were 
recognized as those of the Chinese Gardenia, Gardenia florida. 
Editor. 
CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION 
OF PARA RUBBER, 
BY 
W. H. JOHNSON. 
This is a nicely got up little book of 96 pages by the Director of 
Agriculture on the Gold Coast, and is illustrated with six plates. As at 
present very little has been done in the Gold Coast in rubber plant- 
ing, it is natural that this work should be mainly a compilation of 
papers published in the Malay Peninsula, Ceylon and elsewhere. 
With respect to the site for the plantation as to whether dry or wet 
land is best, the author states that many failures have been ex- 
perienced by planters endeavouring to cultivate the tree in swampy 
land 1 he critic does not remember to have heard of anv such 
cases. Recently, a statement has been published saying that the 
assertion that wild Para rubber grows on swamp land is incorrect 
and that it grows 011 high land, but all the best authorities who have 
had much experience in Brazil, M. Bonnecheaux, M. ClBOJ and 
others state that the low swampy flooded ground of the Botanic Gar- 
dens rubber plantation is exactly similefr to the habitat of the plant 
in Northern Brazil. 
I do not think the time has come yet when we can say it thrives 
equally well on dry soil. No plantations in such ground have been 
