-Vol. XL No. 267. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS, 



235 



FUNTUMIA RUBBER IN SOUTHERN 

 NIGERIA. 



The following interesting extracts are taken from 

 a report by the Provincial Forest Officer, Central 

 Province, Southern Nigeria, on the tapping of 

 Funtumia rubber in Benin City Communal I'lantations, 

 in 1910. 



The i)lantations are formed by the village people 

 under the supervision and encouragement of the Forest StafiF. 

 It has been, and is still, the practice each year for the Forest 

 Staff to collect seed from the forest, take it to the villages 

 and make nurseries with the help of the village people. 

 Later in the year the Forest Staft' supervises the planting out 

 into the plantations, the labour for all operations being sup- 

 plied by the villages and utilized under the dir;ction of the 

 Torest Stati', In each village there are one or more 'Ogas' 

 or headman who are told off to look after the plantations, 

 and whose duty it is to see that they are kept weeded, etc. 

 These Ogas are usually exempted from other work. 



TAi>riN(i. Tapping was commenced on June 8, the 

 greater part of May having been taken up in building a dry- 

 ing shed at Benin City for the reception of the rubber when 

 it came in from the plantations. The trees were tapped on 

 the full herringbone system, to a height of 10 feet, and half- 

 way round the tree. 



coAcuLATiox. This was done by boiling, as it was thought 

 unwise to introduce acids or chemicals of any description for 

 the imrpose. My opinion is that all the operations should be 

 ■done in a way that the natives can easily imitate. It 

 was a matter of some experiment before we arrived at the 

 correct quantity of water to use, when cooking, to prevent 

 turning; but it was eventually gauged to a nicety, and 

 I think I may say that after the first month there was not 

 a single buscuit spoiled by burning, whereas at first quite .50 

 per cent, were burned. 



The boiling was done in enamel-lined saucepans holding 

 about 3 pints, putting in about li pints of water to a quar- 

 ter of a pint of latex; the water was bmught to boiling point 

 before the latex was put in. It was found necessary to get 

 the proportion of water to latex fairly correct as too little 

 water results in burning, whilst too much causes the whole 

 thing to overflow and thus waste the rubber. During the 

 ■coagulation the rubber is kept off the sides of the vessel with 

 a clean stick, and the mass is conked until the remaining 

 liquid bscomes quite clear. 



A point worth mentioning here is that fresh latex, that 

 is, that just taken from the trees cannot be cooked satisfac- 

 torily. It is impossible to get the water clear, and in the 

 efforts to do so the rubber becomes over cooked and too tough 

 to roll out. If taken out whilst still soft enough to roll 

 there is necessarily a large amount of rubber left behind in 

 the water, and this of course is wasted. On the other hand, 

 if the latex is allowed to stand for twelve hours, the water is 

 cleared without excessive cooking; the rubber is in a pliant 

 state capable of easy rolling, and there is no waste. Evi- 

 dently some mechanical change takes place in the latex 

 ■whilst standing, which makes the globules cohere more 

 readily. 



After cooking, the rubber is thrown on to a table or 

 other flat surface and rolled out into thin biscuits with 

 a wooden roller. The side of a box and a bottle answer 

 the purpose quite well, in ihe absence of more convenient 

 apparatus. 



After cooking, which in each case was done in the 

 plantation, the rubber was brought into Benin City and 

 washed. It was found necessary to wash it for a whole day 

 in the same way that one washes a photographic plate, ia 

 order thoroughly to get rid of the serum. After washing it; 

 was placed in the specially built rubber-drying shed. 



This building is 5-t feet long by 20 feet wide, and is con- 

 structed of squared timber and corrugated iron, the sides 

 being made to open for ventilation. Internally it is fitted 

 with a series of wire netting shelves to receive the rubber 

 biscuits, it being found impracticable to handle them. 



It takes a long time to dry the rubber thoroughly, and 

 it is doubtful if it is possible to bring it to the requisite 

 state of dryness during the wet season without the aid of 

 artificial drying apparatus. ])uring last season small fires 

 were kept going in the shed most of the time, but even then 

 the June rubber was not considered sufficiently dry to sell 

 before Octoljer, and the whole was not ready for shipment; 

 until December. 



There is one interesting point in connexion with the 

 drying of rubber which I shnuld like to mention, and that is 

 the cause of tackiness. As is well known by anyone who 

 has had to do with rubber (Funtumia rubber at any rate), it 

 frequently happens that some of the biscuits become tacky; 

 that is to say, they become sticky on the outside, and the 

 whole mass gradually becomes converted into a gum-like 

 substance which sticks to everything and cannot be got rid 

 of. This occurred with several of our biscuits last year, and 

 for a long time I was at a loss to account for it. I found on 

 experiment that it was only on the outside of the shed, 

 where the rubber was exposed to the morning or afternoon 

 sun, that the tackiness occurred. This, of course, would 

 have been noticed before had it not been for the fact that 

 the biscuits were constantly turned to accelerate drying, and 

 in the operation the positions were altered. 



After this discovery I erected palm leaf shades on either 

 side of the shed, and since then there has been no tacky 

 rubber 



RESULTS. The season's operations comprised the tapping 

 and thinning of eighty-four plantations, the total number of 

 trees tapped, that is trees 18 inches in girth and over, being 

 4, TOG, yielding 413 lb. 12 oz of dry rubber. The total 

 number of trees tapped to exhaustion and cut out was 

 28,81.5, yielding 60S lb. 4 oz. of dry rubber. The total yield 

 of dry rubber was 1,022 It). The loss of weight in drying 

 was 37 7 per cent. The average yield per tree of tapped 

 trees, that is 18 inches in girth and upwards, was 1'4 oz. 

 The average yield per tree of thinned trees, that is tapped to 

 exhaustion, was 0'3 oz. 



The rubber was sold by Messrs. Figgis & Co. in London, 

 in March. It was put up in three lots and realized the 

 following prices, finest plantation Para at the same data 

 fetching 6.s. Ud per ft.: lot 1, 470 ft., 6s. 6A per ft.j 

 lot 2, 466 ft., 6s. I.W., and lot 3, 60 ft., .5s. 6c/. per ft. This 

 is an average of nearly 6s. Id. per ft. 



Lot 2 was composed of slightly thicker biscuits thaa 

 lot 1 , whilst lot 3, was partly composed of the tacky rubbet 

 previously mentioned. 



The gross sum realized was £302 12s. dd., whilst 

 brokerage and other charges amounted to £5 lis. 7c?.| 

 making a net result of £297 Is. 2d. 



