272 



" 1 have established in this country during the last five years a 

 plantation of this rubber, consisting of about 70,000 trees, this 

 being, I believe, as yet the only plantation made of this sort. 

 Under cultivation this tree thrives admirably, growing with great 

 rapidity, and averaging about five feet a year. 



" Crops are obtainable in from six to eight years, but a tree five 

 years old yields as much as I pound of rubber. It is a large forest 

 tree, the trunks attaining six and seven feet in circumference. 



Four arrotas (lOO lbs.) of rubber have been extracted from a 

 single tree, but the average yield is far less 



" The important consideration as regards this species, apart 

 from its intrinsic value, is that it grows at great elevations on the 

 Colombian Andes, viz., at from 6,000 to 8,00o feet above the sea. 



" Prior to the wholesale destruction of this tree (but few now 

 remain) by the rubber collectors, I explored, some five years ago, 

 the forests wherein it abounded in order to examine the soil, 

 climatic and other conditions affecting its growth. It may be 

 mentioned that its area of distribution has been peculiarly limited 

 to a small section of the Cordilleras some 1,500 miles from the 

 sea. The total quantity of rubber exported during the few years 

 the article existed could not have amounted to many hundred tons. 



" It is very difficult to propagate the tree from cuttings, hence 

 I have had to resort, during my supervision of the plantation, to 

 propagation by seeds, which, moreover, were always procured 

 with much difficulty." 



Messrs. Hecht, Levis, and Kahn, wrote in May, 1 890, to Royal 

 Gardens, Kew : — 



" We beg to say that Colombian scrap rubber has been known 

 in the market for the last few years, and is of a very superior 

 quality indeed. 



" It would be difficult to give you the exact average market 

 value, but it has varied during the last few years between 2/3 and 

 3/ per lb. At the present moment the value is about 2/1 id. to 3/." 

 (Bulletin of the Botanical Department, Jamaica, 1894, pp. 110 — III.) 



In the Journal of the Jamaica Agricultural Society for May, -1906, 

 Mr. Thomson gives some further information with regard to 

 virgen rubber, as follows : — 



"This is the only important species of rubber indigenous to the 

 cool bracing temperature of lofty tropical mountains. The other 

 important species grow in the hottest zones of the earth. Hence 

 to prospective planters settling in Jamaica the climatic conditions 

 involved are of the greatest consideration. The temperature on 

 the mountains is like a perennial English spring. As is well- 

 known. Englishmen flock to the island of Ceylon to settle on the 

 mountains ; there the mountain climate is duly appreciated. In 

 like manner the varied resources of our mountains are destined to 

 attract attention. 



The elevation above the level of the sea at which the virgen 

 rubber was found growing in a state of nature, four degrees from 

 the equator, ranged from 5,000 to 7,500 feet 



" From a cultural point of view, I have never in all my experi- 



