I 4 I 



CHAPTER XV. 



Future Prospects. 



T N reviewing the future prospects of the plantation 

 rubber industry, we need concern ourselves only 

 with those plants which have already acquired an 

 indisputable position among tropical products, and 

 whose general behaviour has secured for them the 

 esteem and confidence of the tropical agriculturist. 

 Of these, two, or at most three, can be placed in such 

 a category. They are the Hevea, the Manihot 

 Glaziovii, and the Funtumia elastica. The first two 

 have proved their excellent all-round qualities in all 

 sorts of soils and climates, ranging from Brazil to 

 Borneo, whilst the Funtumia, despite its failure as an 

 emigrant, is, nevertheless, certain of a brilliant 

 future as an African rubber pure and simple. In our 

 opinion it would be waste of time and money to 

 attempt to acclimatize this tree outside the zone of 

 its native habitat, and much the same may, with 

 equal truth, be said of the Hevea, so far as the home 

 of the Funtumia is concerned. 



In the Hevea and Manihot Glaziovii, then, we have 

 two plants which, we believe, are destined to supply, 

 in the main, the output of plantation rubber in the 

 immediate future, and we cannot dismiss the larger 



