302 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



can put a plant in the ground (cost of Crown Land 30/ per acre, 

 cost of clearing per acre, say £6) and secondly, most of the 

 standing crops suited for his style of cultivation take a long 

 time before they begin to yield (from H years to about 7 years) 

 and therefore of necessity must be plants yielding a high priced 

 product, and of a kind that requires more or less simple 

 preparation for the market. Is any more than these suggestions 

 and considerations needed to show that the cacao planter who 

 plants up Guarana, or coffee, with spices among them, as well as 

 his cacao, is in a better, safer, and more economic position, 

 than the one who plants cacao only, — especially when the price 

 of cacao falls ? 



Some enthusiasts, for the last 20 years have been recommend- 

 ing the cultivation of India-Rubber bearing trees of various 

 sorts. In Ceylon and everywhere elsewhere they have been 

 planted, dissatisfaction has been the result. Ceara Rubber 

 (Manihot sp.) is useless, Para Rubber (Hevea sp.) cannot be safely 

 tapped before the 10th or 12th year; Columbian Virgin, can be 

 tapped at the 8th year, but is said not to grow under 600 feet 

 altitude. The Ulle (Castilloa sp.) begins to give a return, in 

 its native forests, in 8 or 10 years. The Assam Rubber (Ficus 

 Elastica) is not at maturity till 50 years of age, and it frequently 

 does not survive the first tapping. I do not think there is 

 a single Rubber tree plantation which has even begun to pay 

 its expenses. The future planters of rubber trees, too, had 

 better before they make up their minds consider the fact that 

 a process for making synthetic rubber has been patented, and 

 any day may see it at work on a commercial scale. 



Yet, by far the most rapid bearing, and lucrative cultivation 

 that can be suggested for the owners of abandoned, or about to 

 be abandoned sugar estates, is Rubber cultivation of a kind 

 which the Rubber tree enthusiasts have bestowed little notice 

 on, viz. : the cultivation of Rubber vines, such as Forsteronia, 

 Cri/ptostegia, Leuconotis and Landolphia. Probably some of 

 these may be capable of such rapid propagation, and such rapid 

 regrowth when cut down for extraction, and withal yield such a 

 high percentage of good rubber as to make them a reliable 

 annual or short crop. Forsteronia is a West Indian plant, and 

 is as likely as any to meet those conditions. This is the sugges- 

 tion to owners of such estates : Given a Rubber bearing vine 

 meeting those conditions, and cleared land in a suitable locality, 

 it would not be a difficult or costly thing to plant up a large 

 area with long cuttings of Cedar, Plum or other quick growing 

 wood, — cedar for preference — and grow the vines (from seed 

 or cuttings) on them. The cultivation expenses would not 

 amount to much, and if the planter could count on \ of a 



