LANDOLPHIA RUBBER FORESTS 105 



after or the bulk of them will certainly 

 perish, but it would be impossible to superintend 

 properly the work of looking after young vines 

 planted in an impenetrable forest with pathways 

 only at intervals. Indeed, the only practical 

 way to cultivate Landolphia would be, I 

 think, to plant it in rows on live supports, like 

 vanilla, and regulate the top shade according 

 to experience. 



The more we examine this question of the 

 management of Landolphia forests in the Pro- 

 vince, the more we seem to be forced to the 

 conclusion that, having once gone through a 

 forest and chopped up the stems for the purpose 

 of mechanically extracting the rubber with a 

 machine, that forest is finished with as a rubber- 

 producing area. 



My own belief indeed is that chopping down 

 the vines — and I would even go farther and 

 root them up afterwards in order to get as 

 much rubber out as possible — for mechanical 

 extraction is the only way a forest can be profit- 

 ably worked. The native method of scarfing 

 is destructive and wasteful as it weakens the 

 vines, in many cases destroying them, while 

 only a fraction of the rubber is extracted. 



These forest-clad lands have no doubt had 

 their forests destroyed by fire or by natives for 



