296 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March 1. 1914. 



The African Rubber Industry. 



OWING to tlic nunibt-r of sources of supply comprised in the 

 African Rubber belt it is necessary to consider them in- 

 dividually. England, Belgium. I'Vance and Germany all 

 have their share in the financing of the production, which, gen- 

 erally speaking, is declining as to wild rubber and making head- 

 way with the plantation variety. 



The inferiority of African crude rubbers to those from South 

 America has been attributed to defects in preparation rather than 



to the quality of 



the trees or 



vines. It has been 



suggested that a 



better article 



would soon ap- 

 pear if the dirty 



and inferior 



grades exported 



were rendered 



unsalable by the 



imposition o f a 



graded export 



tax at port of 



shipment. 



In view of the 



difficulty of con- 



trolling the 



methods of na- 

 tive collectors, 



apprehension has 



been expressed 



of the gradual 



extinction of Af- 

 rican wild r u b - 



bcr. That these 



a n t i c i pations 



are justified is 



shown by the lat- 

 est report of the 



Chief Commis- 

 sioner of Ashan- 



t i upon the 

 rubber industry 

 o f that country, 

 according to 

 which some 9 5 2 

 tons of rubber 

 ■n^ere exported in 

 1912, against 1,- 

 206 tons in 1911. 

 The decrease 

 was due to the 

 systematic over- 

 tapping of the 

 wild rubber trees. 



which has been carried on by the natives ever since tiic industry 

 commenced. It is considered likely that the production of wild 

 rubber in Ashanti vjiW continue to decrease, to be gradually re- 

 placed and superseded by plantation rubber. While the exports of 

 rubber thus dropped oflf more than 20 per cent., exports gen- 

 erally from Ashanti .showed an all-round increase of 25 per cent. 

 According to the last report of the Agricultural Department 

 of the Gold Coast, the department was maintaining five agri- 

 cultural stations ; one in each of the three provinces of the 

 colony, one in .-Vshanti and one in the Xorthern Territory. 

 The total luuuhcr of plants and seeds distributed to applicants 



during the year 1911 by the 



KKPRunrCKIl FKONt 



Department was as follows : 

 Plants. Seeds. 



i'ara rubber 43,455 94,115 



fuiitumia rubber 8.898 3,930,000 (262 lbs.) 



Supplies of Para rubber seeds {Hevea Brasiliensis) were far 

 short of the demand, in spite of the fact that the trees at Tar- 

 quah gave a very fair crop of seeds. This variety was most fre- 

 (piently specified in requests by European plantation companies. 



The report o f 

 the Agricultural 

 I ' c p a rtment of 

 Southern Nigeria 

 for 1912 states 

 that the rubber 

 under cultivation 

 in that country is 

 chietly confined to 

 H e V e a Brasil- 

 iensis (Para) and 

 Manihot G las i- 

 II '■ii (Ceara), 

 wliilc Puntumia 

 cUislica and sev- 

 e r a 1 species o f 

 Laitdnlphia a n d 

 I'icus are indig- 

 enous and oc- 

 cur in fairly large 

 quantities in va- 

 rious parts of the 

 protectorate. The 

 moist zone is 

 eminently suit- 

 able for the 

 growth of Hevea 

 Brasiliensis, and 

 sliould that culti- 

 vation be serious- 

 ly taken up there 

 is little doubt that 

 Southern Nigeria 

 would have a 

 prominent place 

 as a plantation 

 rubber producing 

 country. The de- 

 partment has two 

 small Para plan- 

 tations o f about 

 3,000 trees each 

 of tappable age; 

 one at Agege and 

 the other at Cala- 

 bar. On these 

 trees it is proposed to carry out extensive tapping experiments. 

 Two fungi have been found in the colony of Southern Nigeria, 

 causing decay of the roots of the Para trees {Hevea Brasil- 

 iensis). Ceara rubber (Manihot Glaziovii) has done exception- 

 ally well at the Moor plantation, to the climatic conditions of 

 which it appears particularly suited. 



By the latest report of the Department of Agriculture of the 

 Uganda Protectorate, the area planted to rubber is extending 

 rapidly, witli Hevea trees in the lead. .\ small proportion of 

 the plantation Para has now reached a tappable size, the trees 

 being very lieallli>. thi' growing rather slowly. 



REniRT (IF THE Coi.ONI.'VL ECOXOMIC CoMMIlTKi:, FSeRI.IX. 



