6,3? 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Pe^aM t, 1885, 



preserving the tree. According to the report under review, 

 " the rubber tree requires a growth of twenty to twenty- 

 five years before it begins to produce ; hence little or 

 nothing has been done for its propagation. The milky sap 

 which forms rubber is taken from the wild tree, which 

 grows scattered through the forests of the Amazon and 

 many of its affluents. The industry, being principally in 

 the hands of an uneducated and halt-civilised nomad popul- 

 ation of Indian mixture, is of a crude character, and is 

 pursued mostly on the national domain. Nothing has been 

 done to improve the system of labour. A wasteful and 

 exhaustive system has been followed for half a century, 

 and the consequence is that millions of Rubber trees have 

 been destroyed and many others abandoned from pre- 

 mature and excessive use. There are instances of groves 

 of trees which, by careful use and by not permitting them 

 to be tapped in the months of August and September, 

 in which months they change their leaves, have been 

 yielding for 30 years, and are still in good produciug con- 

 dition ; but the common practice is su wasteful that many 

 well-informed people apprehend that, uuless some remedy 

 is applied, this rich resource will, before long, suffer a 

 serious and perhaps fatal decline." While the somewhat 

 gloomy view of the future of Amazonian rubber-production 

 taken by the writer of the preceding lines may be warranted 

 by sucli iudicatious as are at present apparent, the ex- 

 ports have rapidly iucreased in volume and value. The 

 American Consul in the report before us, gives some 

 statistics which clearly demonstrate this. From Para 

 and Manaos, the two principal ports in the Amazon 

 Valley, the export during the five years from 1839-1844 

 was 2,520,000 lb., of the value of $395,<t00. In the five years 

 1854-1859, it had increased to 21,500,0001b., of the value 

 of $4,000,000 ; and in the five years 1874-1379^0 66.000,00011:)., 

 of the value of s22,00O,0O0; in 1882 the export was about 

 10,000 tons, of the value of $15,000,000. A very heavy ex- 

 port duty is collected on this article, the imperial duty 

 being 9 per cent on the value, and. in addition, 12 percent 

 by the province of Amazon and 13 per cent by the 

 province of Para, making 22 per cent on all that is exported 

 from the latter province and 21 per cent on all exported 

 from the former province. 



Costa Rica. — In the report of Mr. Sharp, Her Maj< sty's 

 Consul at San Josu, ou the trade and commerce of Costa 

 Rica during the year 1883, the export of rubber at the 

 various ports of the Republic is put down as 333,018 lb., 

 valued at >l<!f.»,509. It is stated that the Government 

 intended to withdraw the permission given to cutters of 

 rubber on the waste lands of the Republic, ''owing to 

 the abuse made of them and the damage done to the trees." 



Ecuador. — AVe are now able to supplement the figures 

 of Indiarubber exportation from Guayaquil for the five 

 years 1878-82 — which we gave in our last issue as having 

 been taken from the report of the British Consul at 

 Guayaquil — by those for last year, when 9,961 quintals were 

 exported, as against 9,034 quintals in 1882. The increase 

 is at the rate of about 10 per cent. The price entered 

 was ISOs. per quintal; the total value of the exportation 

 reached £89,649. 



Java.— In some statistical returns attached to a report 

 by Mr. McNeill, Her Britannic Majesty's Acting Consul at 

 Batavia, on the trade and commerce of the islaud of Java 

 in 1S83, we find the following figures relating to the ex- 

 port of Indiarubber: — To Holland, 632 piculs; to ''Great 

 Britain and Channel for orders," 557 piculs ; to Mediter- 

 ranean ports, 1G piculs ; to Singapore, 12 piculs — total ex- 

 ports, 1,217 piculs. The total amount of exportation in 

 1882 aud 1881 was 765 piculs and 541 piculs respectively. 



Liberia. — Mr. John H.Smyth, United States Cdnsul at 

 Monrovia, Liberia, makes some interesting observations 

 on the Rubber Tree in this part of "Western Africa, in a 

 report dated February . 21st, 1SS3. He states that the 

 Kubber tree and vine are indigenous, although their milky 

 juice has only become an article of export within a com- 

 paratively short time. This has been at a very great 

 sacrifice, since it involved the destruction of the tree 

 aud the vine. Both seem to be hardy, and if some means 

 of taking the gum without immediate injury to the tree 

 and vine could be hit upon — such, for example, as the 

 boxing and cutting of the bark of trees, which system 

 has been adopted successfully in taking the substance 

 from the pine trees in north Carolina — the cultivation of 



the Rubber tree and vine would supply the growing demand 

 abroad for their products, and would constitute a valuable 

 return to labour. The Rubber of Liberia, at the time the 

 Consul-General wrote his report, realised from 334 to 36 

 cents per pound, At present the collection of Rubber, 

 he says, the bringing of it to market, and its barter, are 

 wholly under the control of the untutored native races. 

 It is to be hoped that civilised Liberians will give their 

 attention to the extension of what, could be developed 

 into a most important industry, by adopting the most 

 approved methods of cultivating the tree and vine and of 

 obtaining the glutine substance without destroying the 

 sources of supply. 



Loanda. — Mr Cohen, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at 

 Loanda ("West Coast of Africa), in a report dated March, 

 1884 states that the caoutchouc or Indiarubber tree grows 

 wild and in abundance throughout the interior ; if it were 

 properly or prudently attended to, the produce of rubber 

 would in a very f ew }'ears be immense; but the natives 

 have in many places re-acted the fable of the goose with 

 the golden eg^ by destroying the tree iu their greed of 

 obtaining a larger supply of liquid, which has almost ex- 

 terminated the tree in many places. "We extract the 

 following figures relating to the export of rubber in 1882 

 from some statistical tables with which the Consul supple- 

 ments his report: — To Portugal, 330,354,853 kilos, valued 

 at 227,060,087 reis; to Portuguese Possessions, 0,782 kilos, 

 valued at 4,672,400 reis; to England, 6, 195,912 kilos, valued 

 at 3,141,137 reis; to Holland, 2,06.') kilos, valued at 

 1,590.000 reis. — Indiarubber and Guttapercha Journal. 



Tkk Cultivation of Cloves. — The Equlibirium says: — 

 "Cultivators of cloves in Grenada would do well to heed 

 the remarks of Messrs. T. Duncan & Son, who, referring 

 in a recent market report to the great difference be- 

 tween the prices of our product and those of the article 

 sent from Penang, recommend that greater attention be 

 paid by the Grenada cultivator to the time of picking 

 and method of curing. Whilst Grenada cloves fetch 4r/. to 

 5'/. in London, Penang bring In. 4d. to 1.%-. 5J. Let our 

 planters reflect on it, and set to work in their own inter- 

 ests." — Colonies and India. 



Bananas are not thoroughly ripe and luscious until 

 they part readily from the stem. To have to yank aud 

 twist to get one from the bunch is proof of immaturity. 

 Several bunches hanging in the house between a cool, airy 

 pantry and a warm, airy living room will afford a family 

 supply. Bananas behave in ripening somewhat as peas 

 do. The Selectmen of banana Islands keep a string of 

 bunches hung by pulleys or cords along the peaks of the 

 thatched roofs of their bamboo houses. They lower down 

 bunch after bunch in selecting perfect fruit for a guest, 

 —Straits Times. 



The International Congress convened to deliberate 

 upon the best means of preventing the spread of Phylloxera 

 vastatrix was opened on Monday at Turin. Among the 

 personages present were the Duke d'Aosta, Signor Grimaldi, 

 Minister of Commerce, the Syndic of Turin, and the French, 

 Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Servian, and Roumanian 

 Delegates to the Congress. After a short address of welcome 

 from the Syndic of Turin, Signor Grimaldi explained the 

 object of the Congress, and dwelt particularly upon the 

 necess|ty of common legislative measures being adopted 

 in all infected countries in such a form as not to interfere 

 with the liberty of trade. It was, however, most requisite 

 to raise barriers to the spread of the Phylloxera. — Nature* 



The dwarf trees of China are very curious examples 

 of what may be done to change the habits of species. 

 The tap-roots and any others which show a tendency to 

 strike downward are kept cut back, and after a long treat- 

 ment by this method, healthy, symmeterical oaks, chest- 

 cuts, pines and cedars are produced whuh, when fifty 

 years old, are not a foot high, and are kept in pots as 

 any other house-plant would he. The Southern bald 

 cypress is a remarkable tree. It is not evergreen, although 

 a conifer, and does not show any signs .of vitality till 

 other trees are well started in leafing out. It is said to 

 be hardy at the North. It reaches a great age and size, 

 a section of one at the Cambridge Botanical Gardens 

 showing an age of 545 years. At Oaxaca, Mexico, there 

 is one which, while 118 feet girth — almost 40 feet in 

 diameter, is only 130 feet high.— Straits times 



