July 1, 1911. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



343 



British Guiana and India-Rubber 



' By the Editor of "The India Rubber World." 



SFXOXD LETTER. 



Again the Climate. — A Boston Boy Planter. — The Bete Rouge. — Getting 

 Acquainted with the Sapium Jenmani. — Jenraan's Description of the Tree. — 

 Sapium Plantations. — The Macwarriebaih. — Brittle Balata — Batata back in 

 1883. — Notes on Balata Gathering. — Some Balttta Statistics. 



SI'HAKIXG again of the climate of British Guiana, I want 

 to affirm that of all the tropical countries I have visitt-d 

 it comes nearest to being my ideal. Not in Georgetown 

 nor on the coast. 

 It is a trifle too 

 sticky there, but 

 healthy withal. 

 But 40 or 50 

 miles inland it is 

 just what one 

 who loves trop- 

 ical warmth in 

 midday and cool 

 nights would de- 

 sire. 



I met a youni 

 American in 

 Georgetown o n 

 the occasion of 

 my last visit who 

 s well known to 

 many in the rub- 

 ber trade. He it 

 was who once 

 crossed the An- 

 des and c a m t 

 down over the 

 falls of the Ma- 

 deira with a lot 

 of rubber for 

 the Safety Insu- 

 lated Wire and 

 Cable Co. He 

 had become a 

 resident of Brit- 

 ish Guiana, hav- 

 ing purchased an 

 island not far 

 from George- 

 town, and was 

 engaged in plant- 

 ing Hevca. He 

 was tapping wild 

 S'apiums that he 

 found on his 

 land, shipping 

 the rubber in and 

 getting a very 

 good price for 

 it. His backers 

 were a couple of 

 rubber manufac- 

 turers in the 

 United States, 

 who, although, 

 not big factors, 

 were enterpris- 

 ing enough to wish to be sure of their own source of supply. 

 The young American was living in a little cabin that he had 



erected on the island and hiring a lew men and for the amount 

 of money that he had to spend doing a lot of work. His seed 

 supply he secured in a very shrewd way. Most of the planters 

 have to send to the Far East, and there are lots of "failures 

 to germinate" in the seed. This youngster found in Trini- 

 dad a small estate with a few old Hcveas on it. He in- 

 duced a friend to buy it and the trees furnish all of the 



seed he can 

 comfortably take 

 care of. 



He was in ex- 

 cellent health 

 with the excep- 

 tion of "hives," 

 as he explained. 

 Visitors to the 

 G u i a n a s and 

 Brazil, if they 

 stray outside of 

 the cities, are 

 apt to suffer 

 from mild at- 

 tacks of "hives." 

 At least that is 

 what they con- 

 fide to some 

 friend after a 

 period of ener- 

 getic and una- 

 vailing scratch- 

 ing. The fact is 

 they have a n - 

 nexed a small 

 red bug, the bete 

 rouge, that bur- 

 rows beneath the 

 skin and is 

 troublesome i f 

 not eliminated. 

 Alcohol will do 

 it, one or two 

 applications be- 

 ing sufficient 

 usually. As a 

 preventive many 

 soap their legs 

 and come off 

 scot free. And 

 others, particu- 

 larly those who 

 are used to 

 tropical pests, 

 pay no attention 

 at all to them. 

 I collected some 

 in all of the 

 places that I 

 visited, but it 

 was in British 

 Guiana that I 

 got the liveliest 

 specimens. They settle behind the knees and about the waist 

 and are energetic at nightfall. I was out of alcohol and so I 



SAPJVM JENMANI ON BABOON ISI,.\N!). 



