280 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May I, 1909. 



■/,-, . 1." 





"Manihot Dichotoma" Near Calderao, Bahia. 



[Photographed by Ernest Ule. October, igo6.] 



been obtained, this company will be well satisfied with an average 

 of one pound per year. At the first tapping of 200 three-year-old 

 trees the yield of dry rubber was 71.65 pounds. The yield per 

 tree varied, a single specimen at the first cutting giving 200 grams 

 of latex, or .44 pounds, but this, of course, was exceptional. The 

 best time for tapping has been found to be just after the rainy 

 season, and when the leaves are falling. The yield is markedly 

 less in a dry year, which the company believe to be due to the 

 absorption by the tree of the latex, in lieu of any other supply of 

 moisture. Mr. I. Henry Hirsch, of the company, states that 

 native maniQoba trees, if not tapped, have often been found with 

 the bark cracked, allowing the latex to escape, where it dries on 

 the tree and can be collected in shape for market. 



Three species have been planted, which are named here in the 

 order of the relative estimation placed upon the three : 



Manihot Piauhyensis (Ule) — Remanso rubber. 



Manihot dichotoma (Ule) — Jequie rubber. 



Manihot Glasioz-ii (Miill. Arg.) — Ceara rubber. 



Rubber from the new plantation has been marketed already, in 

 New York. London and Bordeaux, with satisfactory results. 

 About April i sales were made in New York at 85 cents a 

 pound. The enterprise here reviewed is a private or "close" cor- 

 poration, The Brazilian Rubber Plantation and Development Co., 

 registered July 6, 1906, under the laws of New York. The pres- 

 ident, Mr. Adolph Hirsch, is the head of Adolph Hirsch & Co., 

 commission merchants. 



THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF "MANIHOT." 



The rubber tree of Ceara, a Brazilian State, uniformly described 

 as being particularly liable to drought, long has been of interest 

 to the world if only for the reason that it flourishes under cir- 



cumstances so unfitted for the success of other rubber species ; 

 besides, the product is of a good grade, and the plants fairly pro- 

 ductive. The Ceara rubber tree was among the first in Soutli 

 America to be identified botanically, it having been designated by 

 Johann Miiller, of Aargau, as the Manihot Clazioz'ii. But the 

 determination of the species having been made from plants grown 

 from the seed at Kew, the question from the first was involved 

 in some doubt. [See a comprehensive article in The India 

 Rubber World, November 15, 1890 — page 35.] 



From the date of the earliest attempts at rubber culture, Ceari 

 rubber was experimented with, either under this name, or 

 Manihot, or "mani(;oba," which is the native local name for it. 

 The first rubber exported from Ceylon [11 cwt. in 1889] was 

 from planted Ceara, and considerable of this variety was planted, 

 but later Hcvca rubber succeeded so well in the Far East as 

 almost to overshadow every other kind. In German Africa, how- 

 ever, and in some other regions less well adapted than Ceylon 

 and Malaya, to the Hevea, Ceara rubber continues to be planted 

 on a large scale. Why not, then, in its native habitat? 



Gradually it became known that the rubber trees or shrubs 

 known locally as "mani?oba" did not all exhibit the same char- 

 acteristics, and particularly that the trees in dififerent sections pos- 

 sessed different values as rubber producers. The most thorough 

 scientific study of the "manieoba" rubber, perhaps, is that by 

 Ernest Ule, published by the royal botanical garden and museum, 

 at Berlin. Ule made several journeys into the regions where this 

 rubber is found native, with the result that, in addition to the 

 tree already known as Manihot Glaziovii, he described three dis- 

 tinct species: Manihot dichotoma, M. heaptaphylla, and M- 

 Piauhyensis. 



Three of the four species are illustrated herewith. 



Plantation of "Manihot Glaziovii." 



[Brazilian Rubber Plantation and Developfmen'; Co.l 

 [Trees 2 years and 9 months from seed.l 



