570 
apt to die prematurely if carelessly cut. The fibre is prepared by a 
machine capable of defibrating 20,000 leaves an hour, with the labour 
of three men. A thousand leaves gives 50 to 55 pounds of fibre, that 
is 2 -k to 3 tons an acre. The fibre is valued at about £29 per ton, 
and'as in Mexico the expenses are light, a good profit is obtained. 
At present the plants in the Singapore Gardens are small, but seem 
to make a steady growth, and it seems likely to do as well as Sisal, 
or Mauritius hemp here. 
The above notes are taken from Mr. R. H. Millwaru s Mexican 
fibre Agaves known as Zapupe. (Trans. Acad. Science, St. Louis, 
1909). 
RUBBER NOTES. 
Peat Formation. 
Through the kindness of the Collector of Land 
Revenue, Lower Perak, we have received a report of 
some peat soil taken from a spot between Chankat Tong 
and Sabak in Perak examined by the Government 
Analyst in 1906. Unfortunately no complete analysis 
is given. The Analyst (Mr. Burgess) merely says : 
Coarse mineral matter on laevigation . . none. 
Total mineral matter in the dry sample . 7—6. 
The report shows how very poor in mineral consti- 
tuents this soil is. — E d. 
THE BLACK HEVEA FUNGUS. 
We recently published (Bulletin VIII, 3™) some 
account of a pestilential black fungus attacking the 
shoots of rubber trees in Johore and Selangor. Speci- 
mens were sent to the Director of. the Royal Gardens 
Kew, who submitted them to Mr. Massee, the 
