124 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. II 



(Ch. IX, above) would repeat itself in rubber, an expedition was 

 sent to tropical America in 1875 by the Indian Government, 

 aided by the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, and Mr Wickham, 

 who conducted it, and Mr Cross, who led a second expedition, 

 brought back many seeds and plants, which were carefully 

 nursed at Kew and sent out to the tropics, mainly to Ceylon, 

 it being evident that the climate of the greater part of India 

 was unsuited to the growth of the trees. Since that time, from 

 the produce of the Ceylon trees, the Indian Government has 

 established plantations in Burma and elsewhere. 



The first rubber plants to flower in Ceylon and come into 

 free bearing were the Ceara rubbers, and during the period 

 from 1879 to 1884 this rubber was largely planted in Ceylon. 

 In these early days of rubber planting the methods of tapping 

 to get the rubber were not very well understood, and the yield 

 was but small, while the price of rubber was then compara- 

 tively very low. The result was that the plantations did not 

 pay, and very many of them were entirely rooted out to make 

 room for tea, which was just then coming into prominence in 

 the island, and was proving to be very profitable. The export 

 of rubber soon sank to a few hundredweights a year, and 

 remained at that figure till Para rubber came in. 



The Pard, rubber-trees introduced into Ceylon flowered in 

 1881, and from that time onwards every seed has been used. 

 At first the very small supply was used in other Government 

 botanic gardens all over the tropics, so that now the tree is 

 very common everywhere. About 1884 a few began to be 

 distributed to estates in Ceylon, and many places now have 

 fine old trees from this seed. But little interest was taken 

 in the trees for about twenty years, except by the heads of 

 the botanical departments in Ceylon, Java and Singapore. In 

 Ceylon the largest single tree was tapped every second year 

 from 1888 to 1896, in a very crude manner, large V's being 

 cut in the stem at intervals with a hammer and chisel, and 

 the milk allowed to run down into coconut shells at the foot 

 of the tree, where it dried. In this way 13 J Ibs. of dry rubber 

 were obtained in nine years, or an average of 1^ Ibs. a year ; 

 the tree was ten years old when first tapped. At the then 



