333 



WHAT RUBBER TREES CAN BE PLANTED IN 

 HAWAII r 



Pehr Olsson-Seffer, Ph. D. 

 Director, La Zacualpa Botanical Station and Rubber Laboratory, 



Mexico. 



Ever since Charles Goodyear's discovery rendered the rubber 

 of practical use to mankind the tropical forests have been scoured 

 by the natives and by white men sea/ching- for rubger-producing 

 trees. Along the Amazon River and its tribuiaries the serin- 

 gueiro of Brazil hunts for the rubber of this immense territory, 

 and he sometimes goes as far as the slopes of the Andes. In 

 Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and A'enezuela, a diligent search is 

 made for rubber. All through the Central American republics 

 and Southern IMexico, the native ulero taps the indigenous rub- 

 ber trees which are now rapidly decreasing in number. In West 

 and East Africa the negro collectors bring in immense quantities 

 of rubber for the benefit of the white traders. In East India, the 

 Malay Peninsula and on some of the South Sea Islands, wild 

 rubber is collected. Everywhere, however, the amount is decreas- 

 ing, that is, we should rather say the natural supply is not suffi- 

 cient for the steady increase in the demand of crude rubber. 



This fact, as well as the high prices obtained for rubber has 

 induced capital to take an interest in the development of rubber 

 planting as an industry. It is still m.ore or less in the experi- 

 mental stages, but sufficient results have been obtained to demon- 

 strate that rubber planting, when conducted properly, is a very 

 lucrative undertaking. 



The question what rubl^er plants should be cultivated in certain 

 localities must be determined, besides by the quality of the rubber 

 obtained, by local and climatic conditions. It seems as if it 

 would be rather difficult to make a choice from the great number 

 of rubber yielding plants which are known so far. The concerns 

 which have undertaken rubber planting are still so young that it 

 is not possible to draw more than general conclusions from the 

 results, except in the case of a number of rubber estates in Ceylon 

 and the Federated Malay States, where accurate data can be se- 

 cured. 



