LAXDOLPHIA HrRBER FORESTS 97 



London market was about 3s. 9d. per lb. (8s. 3d. 

 per kilo). 



This, of course, is only one experiment, and 

 many such would be required with old and young 

 roots in dry and wet weather and on dififerent soils 

 to obtain a mean working percentage. 



The question next arises : Does a root rubber 

 forest renovate itself, or is the process one of 

 gradual extermination ? I am supposing that the 

 native does not dig up all the roots of a plant ; if 

 he does, then that plant is destroyed, and there is 

 an end of the matter as far as it is concerned. 

 Certainly a few must get totally uprooted in this 

 way, and therefore if no steps are taken to replace 

 such deaths some decrease in output will eventu- 

 ally take place. 



But in the majority of cases a few roots are left 

 from which shoots appear, and as growth above- 

 ground is always accompanied by growth below, 

 then new roots will also develop. But in a dry 

 district like Mozambique the growth must be very 

 slow, and when once a forest has been worked 

 through I am inclined to think that as a source 

 of rubber it would no longer be a paying pro- 

 position. The question of replanting I am dealing 

 with under stem rubber. 



The total amount of rubber existing in the roots 

 of a forest can never be extracted, because the 



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