271 



course of the year, if the width is not more than two inches. 

 Ceara rubber, planted at lOO trees per acre, will, after the second 

 year, require hardly any expense in cultivation. As for harvest- 

 ing, I collected 30 lbs. last January and February by one boy at 

 15 cents a day, or say 23 cents per lb., the local value being about 

 80 cents. Supposing each tree gave an average yield of I lb. per 

 annum, and allowing 30 cents for cultivation and collecting, 50 

 cents would remain as profit, or R50 per acre." 



"Dr. Trimen, in his Report for 1893 (p. 13), remarks; — " Ceara 

 rubber has not taken any hold on planters here as a permanent 

 cultivation ; yet it might, I think, be worked at a profit by a 

 system of annual planting, and the sacrifice of successive crops of 

 trees when they reach ten or twelve years. About li lbs. of dry 

 rubber is at that age obtained from each tree." — {Kciv Bulletin, 

 1898, pp. 4, 6-7, 8.) 



Analysis of rubber— " At the re(|uest of the Inspector-General of 

 Agriculture in India, I lb., of moulded Ceara rubber (in 17 pieces) 

 and I lb. of Ceara "Scrap" rubber were sent to the Agricultural 

 Chemist by the Government of India for analysis, and the result 

 is given as follows .' — 



Report on the composition of two samples of Ceara rubber, 

 ' Scrap' and ' Prepared,' sent by R. L. Proudlock, Esq., Govern- 

 ment Botanic Gardens and Parks, the Nilgiris, Ootacamund, 1 6th 

 September, 1902. 



Water 



Pure caoutchouc 



Resins 



Ash 



Total 



" The rubbers are of excellent quality as regards colour and 

 texture and the analysis shows a high amount of pure caoutchouc." 

 Bulletin of The Straits and Federated Malay States, October, 1903, 



PP- 329-330. 



Information on Ceara rubber may be found in the Bulletin of 

 the Botanical Department, Jamaica, as follows : — 1895, pp. 31-34 > 

 1897, pp. 242-243 ; 1898, pp. 37-38 ; 1899, p. 84. And in the 

 Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture as follows : — 1905 pp. 

 72-76, 269. 



VIRGEN RUBBER, OR COLOMBIAN SCRAP RUBBER. 



(Sapium sp.) 



Mr. Robert Thomson, until lately one of Messrs Elder, Dempster 

 and Company's Agricultural Instructors in Jamaica, and formerly 

 of Bogota, Colombia, in 1888 wrote as follows concerning this 

 rubber : — 



"This rubber is known in commerce as Colombia Virgen. It 

 has been exported chiefly to the United States, and next to the 

 Para rubber, it has realized the best prices in the market . . . 



