.MvRCii 1. 1912.; 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



263 



The West Indian Agricultural Conference. 



THE most notable ogricultural confcrtnce in the history of 

 the West Indies was held in Port of Spain. Trinidad, dur- 

 ing the week ending january 30. It was notable not only 

 because of the large at.endarce — some hi;ndred delegates being 

 present fro.n the o.her West Indian Islands and British Guiana — 

 Imt because of the r. arked interest of those who attended and 

 ti.e i 1 ponance cf llie subjects discussed. 



1 he president of the conference was Dr. Francis Watts, Im- 

 perial Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies: and 

 the Governor of the Island opened and closed the conference and 

 attended many of its sessions. 



While the conference considered sugar, cotton, cocoa and other 

 kindred topics, it was of special importance to those interested 

 m rubber, because of the amount of time allotted to the discus- 

 si( n of this subject, and because of the practical character of 

 the papers read and the addresses made during the rubber ses- 



The paper read by Mr. Evans gaye a great deal of informa- 

 tion I f practical value to West Indian rubber planters regarding 

 conditions in the Malay States, showing the cost of bringing an 

 acre of rubber trees into bearing, the cost per pound of the rub- 

 ber when placed on the market, describing the method of plant- 

 irg the trees, the proper age for tapping, the tapping tools and 

 tappirg system which experience has found most advantageous, 

 and giving much other information regarding rubber culture in 

 the East. 



1 he Messrs. Jones contributed a paper of nnicli importance to 

 people interested in the planting of Castilloa, the first specimens 

 of which were introduced into Dominica in 1891. The four origi- 

 nal trees planted at that time in the botanic gardens are still in 

 a healthy state of growtli and constitute the source of all the 

 present cultivation of Castilloa in the different islands. They 

 gave a detailed enumeration of the varieties of this rubber tree, 



Deleg.me.s to the Agricultlr.\l Conference. Trinid.M), ].\nl'.\r v, 1912, on the Steps of the Pri.nce's Buildi.\c. 



sion. That part of the president's address which was devoted to 

 the subject of rubber is given below. In addition to this interest- 

 ing contribution an important paper on Para rubber cultivation 

 in the East was read by Frank Evans, assistant superintendent 

 and curator of the Royal Botan:c Gardens, Trinidad, and an- 

 other valuable paper on the cultivation of Castilloa in Dominica 

 was contributed by Joseph Jones and G. A. Jones. Henry C. 

 Pearson, editor of The Indl^^ Rubber World, who was elected an 

 honorary merrber of the conference, (delivered an address on the 

 future of rubber growirg in the West Indies, which will he found 

 in the editorial columns of this issue. 



('escribed the methods of tappirg and gave the results of tapping 

 e.xperimerts on trees of various ages. In the opinion of these 

 two experts, the Hez'ea Brasiliensis still remains, after years of 

 c.xperinents with other rubber trees, the only tree that has given 

 general satisfaction under cultivaticn. 



A notable addition to the rubber programme were the lectures 

 by Dr. P. J. S. Cramer, of Dutch Guiana, and Mr. .Alleyne Leech- 

 man, of British Guiana. The former had just returned from the 

 Middle East and presented some wordcrful views of interesting 

 -■ubber developments in Ceylon. Malay States and Java. Mr. 

 Leerhman's views were devoted tn //rrca and Sapium planta- 



'- . ; . . lOQ -to i.t'lJlii.. L 



