LANDOLPHIA RUBBER FORESTS 101 



were required to bring in a certain amount of 

 rubber a day I think such a system would not 

 be profitable. One can supervise a large number 

 of labourers in a plantation, but not in a forest. 



Much of what I have said in the foregoing 

 with regard to the management of root rubber 

 forests will apply also to the management of 

 Landolphia forests of Inhambane and Lourenzo 

 Marques, in which the rubber is derived from 

 the stem. Especially is this the case with 

 regard to the cutting of roads, police patrol, 

 trading, and attracting native labour. There is 

 one fundamental difference, however. In the 

 case of root rubber the roots must be dug up 

 as we have seen whether the forest is ultimately 

 destroyed or not ; but in the case of stem rubber, 

 latex can be tapped from the living vine. I 

 desire here to examine the arguments for and 

 against cutting down the vines in order to 

 extract the rubber from them by machinery. 



The principle is very much the same as in 

 root rubber. The vines are cut down, divided 

 into lengths, the bark peeled off and put through 

 a pulping and separating machine. With most 

 machines the bark has first to be peeled off 

 by hand, adding thereby very much to the expense, 

 but efforts are now being made to produce a 



