EDITORIAL. 
on account of the lack of means of transportation. ‘These difficulties 
are mainly due to the fact that water for the pack animals cannot be 
found on these desert lands. ‘he gathering is done under contract by 
natives, and the transportation charges sometimes run as high as 
£2 10s. per ton. Several large factories are now operating in Mexico. 
As far back as 1906 it was estimated that there were 810,000 metric 
tons of the shrub available, which would produce a yield of 33,000 
metric tons of rubber. It has been found, however, that if, instead of 
the plants being pulled up by the roots, they are cut just beneath the 
surface, there is a fair prospect of the plant being reproduced. ‘The 
self-sown seeds germinate uncertainly, and grow slowly. It is the 
question of the restocking of natural areas, therefore, that is giving 
rise to concern. One large operator, from experience gained in the 
past, counts upon an annual production indefinitely of somewhat over 
2,000 tons. These figures are based on the supposition that guayule 
will not go below 9d. nor above 15d. per Ib. Scientists, however, are 
_ mow giving their attention to the question of the cultivation of guayule, 
and laboratories and experimental plots on a large scale have been 
established in California and Arizona. Some interesting results have 
already been obtained. The facts tabulated show that there is a wide 
difference in the amount of rubber in the different shrubs. ‘This ran 
from 1 per cent. to 20 per cent., and in rare cases to 27 per cent. 
Improvement of yields by breeding, therefore, is engaging close atten- 
tion. One remarkable result that has been obtained has reference to 
the length of time in which a plant will mature. The problem of 
speeding up the growth has been solved. Left to itself, in its desert 
home, under normal conditions, a guayule seedling takes some twenty 
years to arrive at maturity. Now, under artificial treatment, develop- 
ment has been accomplished in four years. Further inquiries into the 
general question have now been addressed by the Institute to Mr. W. 
B. McCallum, who is located at Tucson, Arizona. 
AMERICA ENCOURAGES RESEARCH. 
After some years’ absence from South Australia, Dr. Thornburn 
Brailsford Robertson has returned to accept the position at the Adelaide 
University of Professor of Physiology. Dr. Robertson has been in the 
United States and in Canada since 1905, having latterly occupied the 
Chair of Bio-chemistry at Toronto. He has come back deeply 
impressed with Australia’s need for original scientific research. 
“America, Canada, and Japan,” he stated in an interview in the daily 
press, “are directly and indirectly our competitors. We must follow 
their lead in this matter, or else be hopelessly left behind in the severe 
competition we shall soon experience. America provides an abundance 
of money for research work, and in Canada industrial research is pro- 
ceeding energetically. The Dominion Government has just put aside 
1,500,000 dollars for building an Institute of Research in Ottawa, which 
will contain suites of laboratories where manufacturers working on 
similar lines may place staffs for research work. The Government pro- 
vides elementary requirements, such as water power, gas, reference 
libraries, and so on, and the manufacturers are to provide the chemists 
and workers, &e.” z 
It 
