October 1, 1913] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



45 



RUBBER CULTIVATION IN KIGERIA. 



Mr. Frank Evans, formerly connected with the English Botan- 

 ical Gardens at Trinidad, but during the last year acting as 

 director of agriculture at Onitsha, Central Province, Nigeria, 

 left on the 10th of August on a leave of absence to cover sev- 

 eral months, and may possibly visit America before returning to 

 his duties in Africa. In his latest annual report on the agricul- 

 tural department he has this interesting paragraph on rubber: 

 "Rubber under cultivation in this country is confined chiefly to 

 Hevea Brasiliensis (Para) and Manihot Glaciorii (Ceara), while 

 Funtumia elastica and several species of Landolphia and Ficus 

 are indigenous and occur in fairly large quantities in various 

 parts of the Protectorate. The moist zone is eminently suitable 

 for the growth of Hevea Brasiliensis, and sliould its cultivati'in 

 be seriously taken up there is no doubt that Southern Nigeria 

 would take a foremost place as a rubber producing cciuiitry. 

 Two twenty-year-old trees experimentally tapped at Ebute Metta 

 yielded an average of 7 pounds 41-4 ounces dry rubber dur- 

 ing 1912." 



RUBBER IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA. 



RUBBER CULTIVATION IN PAPUA. 



The island of Papua, or New Guinea, includes Dutch New 

 Guinea in the western section, German New Guinea in the north- 

 eastern portion, and British New Guinea in the southeastern part. 

 According to the "Handbook of the Territory of Papua," com- 

 piled by the Hon. Staniforth Smith, administrator, the British 

 possessions in the island are 800 miles from east to west, and 

 200 miles from north to south, the total area of the mainland 

 being 87.786 square miles, while the adjacent islands represent 

 2,754 square miles. The total coastline of the territory has been 

 estimated as 3,664 miles, of which 1,936 belong to the islands 

 between Papua and Queensland. The island is watered by 

 large rivers, navigable for manj- miles inland by small vessels 

 and steam launches. 



According to the "Handbook" the total area planted in rubber 

 on March 31, 1909, was 1,702 acres. Rubber exports have been 

 as follows: 1905-6, $5,725; 1906-7, $6,925; 1907-8, $2,415. 



The opinion is expressed that there is no country better suited 

 for rubber growing than Papua, possessing, as it does, an im- 

 mense area of easily accessible virgin forest and scrub land lying 

 along the coast, as well as equally good land — tho at present 

 less accessible — lying further inland. The rainfall is heavy and 

 evenly distributed, while the labor supply is good and apparently 

 plentiful. 



Papua is outside the range of hurricanes, which occasionally 

 ravage the southern part of the Western Pacific and North 

 Queensland. 



CEARA RUBBER IN THE SUDAN. 



Experiments were lately carried out by the Imperial Institute, 

 London, with a specimen of Ceara rubber from the Sudan. The 

 sample was a light brown sheet rubber, with good elasticity and 

 tenacity, the analysis showing 82.7 per cent caoutchouc, 1.7 per 

 cent, moisture, 6.4 per cent, resin, 7.8 per cent, protein and 1.4 

 per cent. ash. It had been excellently prepared and was in very 

 good condition. The rubber it represented was sold at one 

 penny above the price for fine hard Para at the time. 



In view of this favorable report, interest attaches to the state- 

 ment of Mr. D. S. Corlett, the new superintendent of the Ex- 

 periment Station, Peradeniya, Ceylon, (who has lately come from 

 the Sudan), that the Forest Department of the Sudan started the 

 cultivation of the common Ceara (Manihot Glacioi'ii) as an ex- 

 periment, to see if it would do well in that country. They opened 

 about five stations in different parts of the Tipper Nile, each plot 

 being about 100 acres in extent. Ceara requires a well-drained 

 soil, whether sand or loam, and the experimental station! proved 

 a failure. Mr. Corlett attributed this fact to the Sudan being too 

 marshy for this particular rubber. 



C'XCiLISH consular statistics show that a remarkable develop- 

 ■*— ' nient has taken place in the cultivation of rubber during late 

 years in German East .\frica. Eight ruliber plantations passed 

 into the hands of British companies at high prices, the total 

 capital representing about $6,000,(XX). 



The value of plantation rubber exported from the Pro- 

 tectorate rose to its highest point in 1910, owing to the ar- 

 tificially high price then current. At that time there were 248 

 plantations, with a cultivated area of 63,990 acres and 20,- 

 558.965 trees. 



Practically all the rubber planted is Manihot Glaziovii, which, 

 it is said, can be tapped at the age of three years; the other 

 varieties planted, such as Kickxia, Hevea Brasiliensis and Ficus 

 Elastica, being mostly by way of experiment. 



The value of shipments of plantation rubber in recent years 

 is shown as follows: 1908, $103,990; 1909, $279,435; 1910, $822,- 

 985; 1911, $901,570. In 1911. Germany took 70 per cent., and 

 the United Kingdom the bulk of the remainder. 



It is added that no entirely satisfactory method of tapping 

 has yet been discovered, most planters having returned to the 

 system of collecting the rubber by regular series of shallow 

 incisions. The latex is coagulated by an acid solution on the 

 tree, and afterwards collected by hand. There are, however, 

 machines at Muhesa. Mombo and Tanga for cleaning the rub- 

 ber, rolling and drying it, until it assumes the form known on 

 the market as crepe. 



WILD RUBBER. 



Only this class of rubber is collected by native labor. The 

 fall in price in 1908 led to a diminution of exports, collection 

 being to a great extent abandoned for the time. When the 

 "boom" of 1910 ensued, the natives again became very active, 

 but when prices dropped to a normal level their diligence re- 

 laxed. 



In many districts the natives only take up wild rubber col- 

 lection as a last resort for meeting their taxes. 



In 1910 the exports of wild rubber from German East .Africa 

 were about 670,000 pounds, value $725,735; while in 1911 they 

 were only about 344,000 pounds, worth $293,755. This reduction 

 was partly occasioned by the fall in prices, and partly by the 

 fact that the 1910 figures had included some rubber in transit 

 from the Congo, which did not figure in the returns for the 

 later year. 



RUBBER IN TROPICAL AFRICA. 



Discussing this subject in the "Agriculture Tropicale," M. Aug. 

 Chevalier states that the annual production of rubber in tropical 

 Africa has lieen stationary for a number of years, being about 

 15,000 tnns annually. All this, except a few hundred tons pro- 

 duced in German East Africa, is gathered from forest trees of 

 natural growth. The intensive exploitation of the trees in many 

 districts has led to reduced e.xport from a number of colonies. 



M. Chevalier expresses the opinion that there are no further 

 reserves of rubber likely to be found in tropical .\frica. 



REDUCED PROFITS OF AFRICAN RUBBER. 



At the recent London meeting of the Eastern International 

 Rubber and Produce Trust, Mr. W. F. de Bois Maclaren, the 

 chairman, stated that the profits of African wild rubber pro- 

 ducing companies have already vanished. The total cost of 

 producing the rubber is given as equalling 72 cents per pound, 

 while the average price lately realized has been about SO cents. 

 In view of the increasing supply of pure plantation rubber, he 

 considered the outlook of African rubber anything but bright. 



Replete with information for rubber manufacturers — Mr. 

 Pearson's "Crude Rubber and Compounding Ingredients." 



