Vol. IX. No. 210. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



151 



THE RECENT CONGRESS HELD AT 

 MANAOS. 



The report of the conclusions reached at the Commertial, 

 Industrial aud Agricultural Congress lield at Manaos on 

 February 22 to 27, 1910, has been received recently. The 

 Congress was divided into three sections, connected with 

 commerce, the rubber industry and general agriculture, 

 respectively. The following is an account of the chief recom- 

 mendations that were made. 



As regards general commerce, it was resolved to recom- 

 mend that steps should be taken to improve the jjresent 

 condition of the workers on rubber plautatioii.s, especiallj' in 

 the matter of the reduction of tariff rates on the food con- 

 sumed by these. In order to ameliorate the state of navigation 

 and transport, it was resolved to petition the Government 

 to give grants to encourage the e.xploratioa of unknown 

 rubber-producing areas, as well as to award subsidies to such 

 steam.ship companies of Europe and North America as will 

 cheapen their rates and shorten the time of the voyages. With 

 the same object, the removal of obstructions in the rivers, 

 wherever this can be accomplislied, was advised, as well as 

 the exemption by the Federal Government from import duties 

 of all vessels intended for the purpose of navig-iting the 

 Amazon rivers. In order to safeguard the interests of the 

 rubber industry, it was decided to ask that the Federal 

 Government, together with the Legations in Europe and 

 America, should urgently intervene in order to influence the 

 Chambers of Commerce of various rubber-buying countries to 

 take steps to ensure that rubber from the Amazon valley may 

 be que ted according to its real origin, in agreement witli tlie 

 e.xport manifest passed by the responsible authority at the 

 port of shipment. Finally, various reeonimendations were 

 made in conne.xion with the facilitation of communication 

 and transport, chiefly in the direction of the organization of 

 a model navigation enterprise, the construction of railroads 

 and the extension of telegraph lines. 



As regards the rubber industry more especially, the 

 following measures were suggested for the purpose of stimulat- 

 ing the planting of this crop: the establishment of model 

 plantations; free grants of land for rubber-growing; reduction 

 of the import ta.\ on rubber: publication of printed circulars 

 containing advice useful on plantations; the distribution of 

 planting material of llo'm hraulimsis. In order to ensure 

 the further extension of planting, the policy of interplauting 

 and replanting of the present areas, and the planting of the 

 open clearings in the forest was recommended. As a means 

 of determining that further areas may be taken up for the 

 jnirpose of rubber production, it was considered advisable 

 that the Federal Government should advertise largely such 

 openii!gs as could be obtained for the investment of capital, 

 and that a uniform low price should be demanded for land 

 intended for the rubl)er industry. In the matter of the 

 kinds of rubber to be employed for the production, it was 

 considered that Castilloa f'lii should be protected by 

 special laws, and that the planting of Hevea should be 

 encouraged in preference to that of all other rubbers, 

 in view of the fact that more was known concerning this 

 •cultivation than about that of any other kind. The chief 

 recommendations in the direction of the improvement in the 

 ■collection of the latex and the preparation of rubber from it 

 were as follows : to send an expert to those countries where 

 Hevea had been successfully exploited, in order to ascertain 

 the best methods of treatment; to establish model rubber 

 cultivations of an educative character, under the management of 

 competent persons, and having attached to them physiological 

 and chemical laboratories: to advise the rubber growers to 



adopt better methods of coagulation: to ask the respective 

 governments to grant exemption from import duty to any 

 modern machinery intended for imiiroving the present methods 

 of tapping and preparing rubber and allied products in the val- 

 ley of the Amazon: to condemn coagulation by means of acids 

 or alum; to request urgently the Federal Governments of the 

 States of Amazon, Para and Matto Grosso, and of the neigh- 

 bouring republics to enact repressive laws against all kinds of 

 fraud in the manufacture of rubber; to urge the necessity of 

 the organization of a series of well defined types of the differ- 

 ent kinds of rubber, in order that classification may be 

 facilitated. 



In the general agricultural section, similar recommenda- 

 tions were made for crops other than rubber, and in connexion 

 with the encouragement of stock-raising. One of these was 

 that interest should be guaranteed for ten years on capital 

 realized by national or foreign enterprises for the systematic 

 planting of Hevea, the fiovernment fixing the number of 

 these undertakings. The minimum extent of planting in such 

 undertakings should be 50,000 feet within five years, and 

 a guarantee of interest would only be for the purpose of 

 supplementing the rewards granted in accordance with other 

 recommendations; the reward and guarantee together would 

 not be more or le.ss than the amount of the stipulated interest. 

 Finally, it was liecided to draw the attention of the Minister 

 of Agriculture to the necessity of the provision of special 

 delegates, in view of the great size of the territory, the difti- 

 culty of transport, and the time necessary for travelling from 

 one port toanothc'r in the svme state. 



YIELDS FROM CEARA TREES WITH 

 DIFFERENT KINDS OF TAPPING. 



In i! illetin No. I'J of the Hawaii .\gricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, entitled E.rperiments in Tapjnng C<ara Ruhhrr 

 Trees, to which reference has already been made (see A'jri- 

 tultural Xeirx, Vol. IX, p. 107), an account is given .if 

 experiments which were conducted with a view to a.scertain- 

 ing the difference of yield of latex, when V cuts were em- 

 ployed, from that obtaining when the cuts were vertical. In 

 the first trial, ten trees were divided into similar groups of 

 five. It was found that the time required for making the 

 different kinds of incision was the same, being about .seven 

 minutes for each group. The trees tapped with a \ cut gave 

 2i oz. of dry rubber; those with the vertical cut gave Gi oz. 

 The greater yield in the latter case is i)artly due to the "fact 

 that the length of the incision with vertical cuts is greater 

 than that with V cut.s. The rate at which the latex ran horn 

 the vertical cuts was greater than that from the V cuts; the 

 amount of scrap rubber left behind was about the same in 

 each case. The healing of the bark took place in the same 

 time in each case, and there was no difference in the smoiith- 

 ness of the surface of the renewed tissue. 



Another experiment was conilucted with twenty-five 

 trees, which were tapped for five days in succession, fourteen 

 vertical cuts (J feet in length being made during this time, in 

 each case. The purpose of this trial was to ascertain if there 

 is any economy in making more cuts per day, and in this way 

 using up the bark of the tree in a shorter time. The result 

 was that no advantage was indicated from the use of four 

 vertical cuts daily instead of two. The total amount of rubber 

 obtained from the tree wa^ r2'.3 oz., nf which G'2 oz. was 

 good, drj- rubber. 



A further experiment with eight trees at the station 

 gave results again in favour of the vertical cut. These 

 were not affeeteii by the employment of a water bag to wash 

 the latex into the pan and to keep the wounds fresh. 



