September i, 1903.] 



THE INDIA RUBbER WORLD 



425 



RUBBER EXPLOITATION AND PLANTING. 



Rl'BBER RESOURCES OE RHODESIA. 



THE British South Africa Co., holding a royal charter for 

 the administration of the various territories of Rho- 

 desia, have favored The India Rubber World with 

 some details regarding the existence of India rubber in 

 that region, and the nature and extent of its exploitation to 

 date. Attention will be given first to a report by Colonel Colin 

 Harding, C. M.G., on the rubber industry in North Western 

 Rhodesia— a region bounded on the west by Portuguese Africa 

 (whence come the Benguela rubbers) and on the north by the 

 Katanga district of the Congo Free State, also a rubber pro- 

 ducing area. It is natural, therefore, that rubber should be 

 found in this part of Rhodesia. Colonel Harding reports the 

 following native species : 



(t) Landolphia florida. — Found generally in this territory be- 

 tween 12° and 14 S. latitude; abundant in the marshy and ver- 

 dant spots, from ^ to 1 % inches in diameter and 20 to 60 

 yards in length, extending around the forest trees and forming 

 an almost impenetrable thicket. The natives select the larger 

 portions of the vines, leaving the smaller branches, which in 

 another year would haveattained maturity, to rot on the ground. 

 The latex does not flow from the bark, so that the native 

 method of extraction would appear to be the only practicable 

 one. The vine is cut into lengths of 3 or 4 feet, which are car- 

 ried into the kraal and soaked for 48 hours, and then hammered 

 or pounded to remove the bark from the stems. The resulting 

 mass is then boiled continually for three or four days, to re- 

 move as much as possible of the woody fiber of the bark, after 

 which the rubber, while still warm, is rolled into sticks6 inches 

 long (matallas) and hung up to dry, being made later into 

 chetotcs, ready for the periodical visits of traders, who send it 

 out to the Atlantic coast. 



(2) Kickxia (Funtumia) elastica. — Found generally in the 

 same districts; latex is obtained by tapping the trees, and the 

 product is better than from the vines, besides being prepared 

 with more freedom from dirt. The rubber is sometimes mixed 

 with inferior sorts to help their sales. Colonel Harding had 

 little personal knowledge of this species, however. 



(3) Carpodinus lanceolatus (" root rubber " — see The India 

 Rubber World, May 1, 1903, page 261). — " Although admit- 

 tedly it is of inferior quality, still it is a rubber that thrives in 

 the soil where no 



other root could ex 

 ist, and will with an 

 ordinary amount of 

 care in collecting it, 

 eventually prove a 

 valuable asset." 

 Abundant north of 

 15 S. latitude. The 

 root of the Carpodi- 

 nus so nearly resem- 

 bles a length of Lan- 

 dolphia vine that 

 only an expert can 

 distinguish them. 

 T h e Ci n pod in us p 1 a n t 

 rises only 6 to 10 

 inches above the sur- 

 face, while the roots 



are found about 4 inches below, and, spreading evenly and uni- 

 formly, cover a great deal of ground. " At present the plant is 

 so plentiful that in rubber districts the natives collect only the 

 larger roots, leaving the smaller exposed and perishing under a 

 tropical sun. The surface, after the natives have collected 

 their rubber, resembles an orchard or meadow which has been 

 upturned by a grub-seeking hog." The process of preparing 

 rubber from these roots is the same as from the Landolphi' 



vines. 



* » * 



Another report is by Dr. Blair Wilson, civil commissioner, 

 in regird to the Mweru district of North Eastern Rhodesia, 

 which lies east of the Congo Free State, between 8" 30' and 9 

 30' S. latitude. Here are reported several species of Landolphia 

 vines, no rubber trees being found. All the species are not of 

 equal value, some yielding rubber scantily and of inferior qual- 

 ity. Rubber has long been used by the natives for playing 

 balls, drumsticks, and the like, and until a foreign demand 

 was developed, the vines were not injured in extracting the 

 latex. Then the vines began to be destroyed, until now " the 

 trade in rubber is now practically finished in the Mweru dis- 

 trict." Whereas there were in 1899, twenty white rubber trad- 

 ers there, bartering goods for rubber, a large quantity of which 

 was exported, only one trader went through the district in 1902, 

 bringing back very little. Besides, much rubber at one time 

 was smuggled into the district from the Congo Free State, but 

 that has now been stopped by tne authorities of the latter. The 

 Landolphia vines here grew to a diameter of 4 inches. The 

 natives not only cut all the vines, large and small, but dug up 

 the roots, until nothing remained. The Mweru natives seem 

 to have had but one method of preparing rubber : " The juice 

 is collected by the hand as it flows from the cuts and is then 

 rubbed on the body and limbs; the heat of the body and the 

 spreading out thus in a thin layer facilitate evaporation, for the 

 juice quickly coagulates enough to be scraped off and rolled up 

 in the form of a ball, in which state it is always met with ; by 

 this method the maximum of purity is obtained." 



* * * 



To recur to North Western Rhodesia, the official report of 

 the administrator for 1901-02 (recently printed) reports a rich 

 rubber district in the Bakaonde country, 100 by 75 miles in ex- 



"ROOT RUBBER" PLANTS IN PORTtGUESE WEST AFRICA. 

 [Between the Kuito and Kuando rivers, west of North Western Rhodesia. From " Kuuene— Sambesi Expedition. 



