380 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, ioio. 



Colonel Antonio Clemente Bittencourt, 



[Go\ erm u of Amazonas. I 



Senhor Waldemar Scholz. 



[President Manaos Commercial Association.] 



it would cost to ship the same case from New York to Australia. 



Nostalgia is a peculiar disease, and calls for strange remedies. 

 I got rid of my mild attack by visiting the rubber offices and 

 gazing upon the likenesses of rubber men in the States. As a fin- 

 ish I paid 80 cents for one pound of American apples and was 

 cured. 



I was pretty busy, for the Rubber Congress was on, and the 

 meetings were exceedingly interesting. As the detailed story of 

 that great convention has already been told, I am going to con- 

 fine myself to the more personal narrative. For example, the 

 visit of four of us to the Bosque — the very extensive experiment 

 station on the outskirts of the city. We went in carriages as far 

 as we could, then up to the broad plateau where the planting was 

 done. There were some thousands of Hevea trees planted in 

 partial shade in paths cut through the jungle. They were doing 

 nicely, and although it will take them a trifle longer to mature, 



I believe the planting will be most successful. We also examined 

 a large planting of bananas. As this fruit brings 8 milreis a 

 bunch in the field, this experiment also should be most successful. 



Then we explored. Walking through wonderfully beautiful 

 forest paths ; down by the old waterworks with its big cement 

 tanks now abandoned, into the great forest park that one of the 

 former Governors had projected. Other and more needed im- 

 provements had absorbed the city's money, and the jungle was 

 rapidly and effectually recovering its own. Outside of the park 

 we hunted for wild Heveas, but found only the Guyanensis. 

 There was also a, vine which we could not identify, full of a 

 very sticky rubbery latex. 



In Manaos the laborers are practically of the same type as in 

 Para, except that the Indian mixture seems a little more evi- 

 dent. One is nearer the great wild tribes of the upper rivers, so 

 that the blowgun with its poisoned arrows, necklaces of human 



W. Stuart Gordon. 

 [With Gordon \ Co., Man&os. '] 



W. H. HlLDRETH. 



[With A. H. Alden & Co., Limited] 



Bertino Miranda. 

 [Secretary Manaos Commercial Association.] 



