100
anlike that of parts of the Western American prairies. lt
grows in large tussocks, to a height of 4 to 5 feet, and
is cut every three or four months. It is then distilled by
means of steam ; it is packed into large iron stills, in which
steam passes upwards through the grass, carrying the
essential oil with it into the condenser. The oil floats on
the water and is easily collected. This industry has
grown from small beginnings, and has been from the first
almost entirely in native hands. Unfortunately for its
nltimate success it proved only too easy to adulterate the
oil with kerosine and other oils, with the result that
Ceylon oil now has somewhat of a bad name, and that even
pure Ceylon oils cannot get the price to which their quality
should entitle them. Over-production and the competition
of a pure oil from Java, where European planters have
lately taken up the industry, have combined with this to
bring prices toa very low ebb. Lately, however, the Government
 Experiment Station has shown that the grass will
fAourish and yield a good oil at considerable elevations in
the mountains, and it is possible that this may be the means
of resuscitating the industry in the hands of European
planters, as many of the tea estates have large areas of waste
land suitable for this grass. The Government Chemist has
also discovered a satisfactory test for adulteration (see page
50), showing exactly how much is present, and it is probable
 that legislation will be introduced to prevent the
axportation of adulterated oil from Ceylon.
The export in 1903 was 1,062,594 1b., selling in London
at about £025 a pound.

AGRICULTURE.

Rubber.
In the classification of the exhibits for the World's Fair
rubber is treated as a forest product, and until recent years
all the rubber placed on the market came fairly enough
ander this head, being collected from the trees growing
naturally in the forests of the Amazon valley, West and
Central Africa, and other tropical countries. In Ceylon,
however, there are no wild forest rubber trees, and rubber
production comes under the head of agriculture, the rubberproducing
 trees being all of foreign origin, introduced into
the Island by the Government Botanical Department, and
now cultivated in great numbers on estates like tea or
3aCa0.
The trees are carefully treated, and care is taken not to tap
;hem more than they can easily stand—a proceeding which
has resulted in the death of countless numbers of the wild
forest trees. and rendered it necessary to go much further