400 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August 1, 1911. 



in New York the thermometer stands at 104 degs. Fahr., with 

 hundreds of deaths and prostrations. Personally I yearn for the 

 safe warmth, the cool nights and the gentle healthful climate of 

 Guiana. 



"Yo know Massa Johnson, we a go ride one marnin top he horse 

 en he tenk he go Berbice, but he see one big ting across he path 

 dat he no ken go. He look en he look and he see a one big 

 snake ! A true, a snake belly a so big a horse no can leap em, 



-ta 



Takutu Creek. 



Cle.\ring for Rubber Planting. 



Speaking of snakes there are many in the Guianas and most 

 of the planters can show the visitor some very sizable skins. I 

 could not, however, learn of any white man who had perished 

 from snake bite. The government keeps a careful record of all 

 deaths, even of the negroes who go far into the interior to labor 

 at the gold diggings. In looking over the records for a number 

 of years, I found but one case of death by snake bite. Curiously 

 enough the most frequent cause of death among those men seemed 

 to be "accidental drowning." 



To even see a snake one usually has to hunt for it. It is easy 

 to find snake stories, however, and those told by the whites are 

 only a bit less imaginative than those of the blacks. A friend 

 of mine, Wilfred Toubert, who has done the Guianas as 



and he sit on he horse all day till 4 o'clock an a snake no pass 

 yet so den he turn back and he get he people for come and look, 

 but wen he get back a snake a gone." 



Those who believe that any tree flourishes best in its own 

 home, or at least in a country that has the same sort of climate 

 and soil should approve of British Guiana for the Hevea 

 BrasiUcnsis. It is Northern Brazil over again. Humid, tropical, 

 with a long and short wet season with a coastal soil really 

 brought down by the Amazon with fauna and flora almost 

 identical, if it is not the home of the Para rubber tree, it cer- 

 tainly is next door to it. 



It was fully 16 years ago that the first seeds of Hevea 

 Brasiliensis were brought into British Guiana and later plants 



"Hevea Brasiliensis" at the Experiment Station, Issororo, 

 N. W. D. Age UA Years. 



"Hevea Brasiliensis" at Plantation Anna Regina, Essequibo. 

 Age Z'/i Years. 



thoroughly as any one, lay in his hammock in the bush one night 

 and listened to the following story which is typical. The teller 

 was a big-eyed Guiana negro. His audience a breathless, believ- 

 ing crowd of his own color. 



from the first lot of seeds were sent to different parts of the 

 Colony. The result is that there are a few old trees in existence 

 there. About six years ago the botanic gardens in Georgetown 

 began in earnest to import seeds and up to the present time have 



