9?7 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Al'RlL 1, 1911. 



After walking through the cocoa, we entered a long punt, 

 paddled by a pair of muscular Chinamen, and did the whole 

 plantation by water. It was very beautiful thus passing through 

 the cocoa groves, from the midst of which grew the lofty 

 dadap trees, thence into and through a belt of uncleared forest, 

 somber, cool, a tangle of tree trunks and bush rope, the whole 

 decorated with strange flowers, huge fleshy leaves and fast cling- 

 ing orchids. 



1 forgot to say that our party w-as reinforced by the manager 

 of the estate, the Assistant Agronom and two friendly fox ter- 

 riers, that trotted along the banks, swam the canal back and 

 forth, and hunted lizards between whiles with great enthusiasm. 

 From the forest ride we emerged into a great clearing given up 

 to bananas and rubber. I don't know much about bananas, so 



This special planting of bananas and rubber amounted to about 

 2,800 acres, the rubber trees being planted 100 trees to the acre, 

 and it took long to look it over thoroughly. We got home just 

 at dark and promised to be ready for an early start on the mor- 

 row for the Para river. 



The dwellers of the beautiful rubber city that dominates the 

 mouth of the Amazon no doubt believe that the word Para is 

 exclusively their own. It may come to them as a shock, how- 

 ever, to know that there empties into the Suriname river a gen- 

 uine tropical stream that bears the name of Para. It is in many 

 Ways a miniature Amazon, with highwater marks far up on the 

 tree trunks, masses of floating vegetation borne along by the 

 current, with floating trees and logs that had to be dodged or 

 dislodged; it was very like the Mightiest of Rivers. Then, too. 





^T\VC-!^. 









Thkee Ve.xr Old "Heve.\" with L;ana.\7\s. 



the discussions concerning the Suriname disease, a swelling and 

 rotting of the tissues, a sort of vegetable elephantiasis, or the 

 Panama disease, a leaf blight, did not vitally interest me. I am 

 glad to know, nevertheless, that the new Congo variety of 

 banana, which is being introduced, seems to be immune to both 

 of the plant sicknesses just mentioned. 



The Heveas, which were about a year old, looked very well. 

 The soil in which they grew is said to be about 60 per cent, clay 

 and 40 per cent, fine sand. It is really Amazonian mud and holds 

 the moisture wonderfully. The drains between the dykes were 

 from five to six feet deep, so that during the rainy season the 

 trees have at least four feet in which to grow without getting 

 their feet wet. Apropos of this the Government Official spoke 

 of eight year old Heveas on drained and undrained land. Both 

 grew very well, but while the trees on the undrained land were 

 20 inches in circumference those on drained land were 30. 



FuLK Ve.\r Old "Heve.\" TREE^. 



the tree growths of palm, silk cotton, and the variety of hard 

 woods with their small leaves and mighty branches, with the 

 ever present and luxurious monkey vine, binding the trees so 

 firmly together than no forest monarch could fall without pull- 

 ing down many lusty neighbors. The one touch of Amazonian 

 similitude most common, however, was the rankly growing 

 "mocca-mocca," w'ith its huge arrow-headed leaves pointed 

 straight upward, filling every muddy shallow and crowding as far 

 out into the stream as the swift water would permit. Around 

 many curves, under leaning tree trunks, through masses of drift, 

 by little cocoa and banana plantations, we pushed on upstream un- 

 til we reached the mouth of the great canal that joins this river 

 with the Suriname some miles above its mouth. We turned and 

 steamed through this canal out into the muddy waters of the 

 Suriname, past the Leper colony and across to the Accarico 

 (Crocodile) plantation. 



