274 



information on Virgen rubber may be found in the Bulletin of 

 the Botanical Department, Jamaica, as follows: — 1894, p. IIO. 



ASSAM RUBBER, RAMBONG. 

 (Ficiis elastica.) 



Source — Assam Rubber* is obtained from large trees of Fkus 

 elastica. This fig tree generally germinates in the fork of another 

 tree, sending down immense aerial roots into the ground and from 

 the top of these (60 to 100 feet high) it throws out its branches. 



Locality — It grows in the damp forests which clothe the base of 

 the Himalaya Mountains in Sikkim, and stretch away into Assam 

 and Burma. 



Effect of Soil. &c. on Yield—" As the distance from the hills 

 increases, and the atmosphere in which the tree grows gets drier, 

 the quantity of rubber to be obtained from a tree decreases ; and 

 whilst it is stated by the men who fetch it from the hills, that 

 one tree is able to produce from 2 to 3 maunds (160 to 240 lbs.), 

 the men who gather ii from the forests at the foot of the hills, only 

 get from 20 to 30 seers (40 to 60 lbs.) per tree, and if far from the 

 hills, only half that quantity is obtained, especially if the ground 

 is gravelly or otherwise severely drained." G. Mann, Conservator of 

 Forests, Assam. 



Yield— In Algiers, this tree thrives but does not form milk in 

 sufficient quantity to to make it a profitable source of rubber. 

 Continuous tapping for 6 months year after year, Mr. Mann affirms, 

 will kill the trees, and accordingly he urged either that tapping 

 should be restricted to three months a year (January, February, and 

 March), or that a regulation should be made prohibiting the 

 tapping of forests more frequently than once every three years. 

 Mr. Mann further gives instructive figures as to the value of the 

 rubber trees and their yield of caoutchouc. "Assuming that a 

 tree reaches its full size at fifty years without tapping, and would 

 after that, yield every third year, one maund of rubber, which 

 would be collected, manufactured, and delivered in Calcutta at 15 

 rupees per maund, and should realise the present price of good 

 rubber, viz., 35 rupees per maund, it would have a net profit of 20 

 rupees, per tree every third year. Besides this, one maund of 

 lac may be reckoned on from every tree per year, which, if collected 

 at its present rate, could be delivered in Calcutta at lO rupees per 

 maund, whilst it fetciies 15 to 20 rupees per maund there now, 

 which is a profit of 5 rupees at least per tree yearly. 



"All these figures are the lowest, and the tapping the most 

 cautious ; still if the tree planted lives a second fifty years, which 

 it is sure to exceed, it produces 320 rupees for rubber and 250 

 rupees for lac, which is more than any two timber trees of fifty 

 years each, which might be grown in that time could equal." 



Mr. Mann then deals with the two kinds of rubber manufactured 

 by the people of Assam, viz., one in irregular solid lumps or loaves 



* The notes ou (his i-ubber in India are chiefly derived from the information given by 

 Watt's Dictionary nf Bcniiomic Products of India 



