110 
The seed should be planted about the end of March 
and not later than the 15th April, which is usually a 
showery season in Krian. As soon as the Padi has been 
reaped the straw should be burned, and the soil lightly 
changkolled or ploughed, and weeded, and it is then ready 
to receive the Sesainum seed. In favourable weather the 
seed sprouts in 3 or 4 days, and should be ready for reaping 
in 3 months’ time. The seed should be sown, and timed to 
ripen during July which is ordinarily a dry month, and 
favourable for harvesting operations, and the fields can 
immediately thereafter be prepared for Padi with very 
little trouble, and at a small cost. The plant requires a fair 
amount of moisture to enable it to get a good start, but 
after the first month, it can do with a very small amount 
of rain; at the same time even heavy rainfall will not injure 
the plant during the 3 months of its growth, provided the 
land is well drained. Stagnant water will kill it off im- 
mediately. Except in the event of the period between the 
15th March — 15th April being very dry, the plant will not 
require to be irrigated. 
The cost of changkolling or ploughing, one weeding 
and thinning out, — and reaping, if done by hired labour, 
should not cost more than $12 an acre. I have reason to 
believe that an average crop will not yield less than 150 
gantangs of clean seed valued locally at about $40. One 
gantang of seed is sufficient for sowing one acre of land. 
In India this seed is sown as a rotation crop to Padi 
as well as wheat and other “Rabi” crops. 
There might be one obstacle in developing the export 
trade in this article, and that is the probability of a high 
rate of freight being charged by the Conference for its 
transport to Europe, and it must be remembered that we 
shall be competing against very cheap freights from Bom- 
bay to Europe. At the same time a reasonable view might 
be taken by the Conference, with a view to developing a new 
industry. Krian is well situated as regards cheap trans- 
port to Penang, whereas a large proportion of the seed 
shipped from Bombay comes from a great distance in the 
interior. 
A NEW METHOD OF COAGULATING 
RUBBER LATEX. 
In the November number of the “ Tropenpflanzer ’ * D. 
Sandmann describes a new preparation, which he has in- 
vented and patented, for coagulating rubber latex. The 
