374 
then begin to throw the sticks and straw outside the enclosure killing 
the rats collected there as they try to escape. Two or three hun- 
dred can be killed at a time in this way, at no expense, and the 
enclosure can be carried round to each pile of brushwood in 
turn. 
The plan seems a good one and might be used in our paddy lands 
here. 
H. N. R. 
RAMBONGf CULTIVATION IN THE 
MEDITERRANEAN. 
The demand for rubber of all kinds and the general interest in 
its cultivation has induced several cultivators to try the cultivation 
of Ficus elastica, in Egypg Algeria and Sicily, with more or less 
satisfactory results. From the Journal of Tropical Agriculture, we 
find that M. Barzi of the B-tanic Gardens, Palermo, has been 
experimenting with this plant, and has published a report on the 
results; all the trees he has produce rubber and of good quality. 
The plant, however, produces few aerial roots, in Palermo, (one has 
noticed that the Rambong is very variable in this matter), so that 
as the plants are rather smaller than in the tropics they are planted 
there only £ foot (4 metres) apart. In Algiers, at Hamma, M. Ch. 
Riviere has obtained 14 francs a kilo for his rubber produced there, 
about 5 shillings and 4 d. a pound. Unfortunately the production 
of the rubber is very scanty there, 
In Egypt, at Cairo, the tree was introduced by M. FlOyer, as a 
roadside tree in the hopes that it would produce good rubber as 
well, which it apparently does. Accounts of its behaviour were 
published in the Kew Bulletin in 1901 and following years, and M. 
Favre has published notes on it also in the Journal d' Agriculture 
Tropical e . 
ZEDOARY STARCH. 
A note on the preparation of this is published in the Journal of 
the Agn-H orticultur al Society of Western India, and as the plant is 
common in waste ground here it may be of interest to some of our 
1 aders. “The plants are dug up in January (in India) and the 
tubers are cut into as small slices as possible. These are put into 
water and crushed by the hand. The solution is allowed to stand 
one night during this time, the starch goes to the bottom of the 
vessel in which the solution stands. Then the slices and water is 
taken away gently into another vessel, ihe process of crushing the 
slices being similarly repeated and the solution allowed to stand for 
another night, if the tubers are washed clean before being cut into 
pieces the starch will be exceedingly fine and white, if not it will 
have to be washed in water some three or four times. The starch 
is sold at 6 to 8 Annas a lb. in the Konkan. It is mainly used for 
