October i, 1907. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



Rubber Planting in Samoa. 



ALREADY several plantations of rubber have beun formed 

 in Samoa, generally in connection with estates previously 

 devoted to cocoanuts and other crops. Not that interest 

 is declining in the latter, but rubber is being looked to as an 

 additional source of planting profit. The Samoan group em- 

 braces ten inhabited isLtnds, of which the principal ones are 

 Savaii, with 700 square miles ; Upolu, 560 square miles ; Tutuila, 

 240 square miles; and Manua, 100 square miles. Generally the 

 interior of these islands is mountainous and wooded and little 

 known, the native living on the flat lands near the coasts. There 

 is good land in Savaii and some plantations have been formed 

 with foreign capital, mostly German. Upolu is the most im- 

 portant island in the group, and embraces Apia, which is the 

 center of Samoan agricultural and commercial interests. Tu- 

 tuila, which, with some small neighboring islands, is under the 

 United States flag, is wholly unsuited for planting purposes, but 

 here is the best harbor in the Pacific. The climate of the group 

 is, of course, tropical, but tempered with winds and rainfalls 

 to a degree which fits the islands for residence by Europeans. 

 The Deutsche Handels- und Plantagen-Gesellschaft der Sitdsee 

 Inseln zu Hamburg, .A.-G.. with its main agency in .\pia. which is 



playing a prominent part among the firms doing business in the 

 Pacific, for a half century has done most for the developing of 

 these islands. Nowadays this firm possesses the largest cocoanut 

 plantations in the world, which are situated on the island of 

 Upolu. It was also this firm which made the first experiments 

 in the line of cacao growing and as the experiments turned out 

 to be successful, this industry was taken up by this firm and 

 others as well as by private settlers, and many plantations were 

 started for the growing of cacao, which is doing well and part 

 of w'hich has already come into bearing. CofTee was also planted 

 years ago, but was dropped again as it does not pay any more 

 in Samoa. 



.\bout nine years ago the Deutsche Handels- und Plantagen- 

 Gesellschaft started with experimental rubber growing. One 

 of the accompanying illustrations shows an eight year old Cas- 

 lilloa elaslica growing on the Vaitele plantation of the firm. On 

 the Vaitele plantation Captain Hufnagel experimented for sev- 

 eral years and succeeded in raising some fine trees of Hevea 

 and Castilloa on the northern slopes of the mountains. .Among 

 others, Mr. T. Andrew, of .Apia, went in for rubber planting 

 about six years ago and planted a grove of rubber trees on his 

 plantation some distance from Apia. He lately furnished Mr. 

 George Heimrod, .\merican consul general in Apia, some de- 

 tails regarding the result, which have been printed in the Daily 

 Consular Reports. He tapped three Hevea Brasiliensis trees, 

 aged 6 years and 3 months from the seed, grown at an altitude 

 of HOC feet. In circumference they were 24H inches, 23 inches, 

 and 21 '< inches, at 3 feet from the ground. The three trees w-ere 

 each tapped four times, in March and .\pril, 1906. and the total 

 product was 9 ounces of dry rubber. Mr. \V. \'on Bulow, in 



Eight Ye.\r Old "C.\stillo.v El.vstic.v." 



[On the ^■aitele plantation of the Devtsche Handsels- und Plantagen- 

 Gisellschaft der Siidsee Inseln zu Hamburg. .^.-G., on Upolu island, in 

 the Samoan group.] 



"Heve.v Br.\siuensis" One Ye.\r Old. 



[On the plantation of the Safata-Samoa-Gesellschaft, near -Apia.] 



