472 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July 1, 1912. 



there are plantings also of Ceara, Funtumia, Castilloa and Ficus. 

 Trinidad gets its wealth largely from agriculture, and it is 

 therefore natural that it should have an unusually strong De- 

 partment of Agriculture. In addition to the splendid botanical 



Those who have access to Demerara papers must have noted a 

 difference of opinion between the head of the Department of 

 Agriculture there and some Boston gentlemen regarding Hevea 

 seed. It came about thus : The Boston men who are rubber 

 manufacturers own two plantations, one in British Guiana and 

 one in Trinidad. The latter contains fifty or sixty mature Hevea 

 trees ; the owners were gathering the seeds from them and 

 planting their British Guiana lands. They were also selling 

 Hevea seeds at a good price — $5 per thousand I think it was — 

 to planters in Trinidad, who were very glad to get them. Prof. 

 Harrison in a communication to the planters in his own territory 

 asserted that the seeds were not those of the Hevea BrasUiensis 

 — at least some of them were not — and that such would produce 

 an inferior tree. The result of this announcement was that the 

 market for these particular seeds in Demerara ceased to exist, 



Twelve- Ye.«-Old Hc^-ea, Experiment Station, St. Cl.mr. 



gardens situated close to Port of Spain, there are the St. Clair 

 Experiment Station close at hand, and several outlying stations 

 for various agricultural demonstrations. At the head of all of 

 this is Professor Carmody, who, for more than 20 years, has 

 successfully administered one of the most difficult positions in 

 the tropical world. Governors came and went, budgets big and 

 little were voted, his best men died or accepted positions in 

 other fields, but he worked on, and brought success in cocoa, 

 sugar, cocoanuts and oil. Today he is steadily advancing the 

 planting of rubber. A warm-hearted, scholarly, witty Irishman — 

 Trinidad owes him more than it can ever pay. It was under his 

 direction that the late J. C. Carruthers instituted careful com- 

 parisons between the growth and yield of Heveas in the middle 

 east and Trinidad and found them almost identical. 



Thirty-Year-Old Hevea, Botanic Garden, Emperor Valley. 



and Trinidad planters, fearing partial failure, refused to pay 

 more than $2 per thousand for them. The Boston manufacturers 

 were naturally much exercised, and delivered themselves of a 



