THE HISTORY OF RUBBER 



exports such a large proportion of the world's whole 

 supply of the raw material, and the quality of its out- 

 put is far superior to that of the supplies from nearly 

 every other rubber-producing country. 



But here, I ought just to tell you that, for the first 

 time in its triumphant career, wild Para has a really 

 fearsome rival. This adversary is commonly known as 

 Plantation Rubber ; as a matter of fact, it is Cultivated 

 Para, which it: making such a determined fight for 

 supremacy in the raw rubber market. This is indeed 

 a case of child rising up against parent, for the Culti- 

 vated Para is all being obtained from trees that owe 

 their existence to seeds taken from the Brazilian 

 forests. The struggle is causing much disturbance in 

 the Rubber World ; all of you must have heard of at 

 least one of the stirring events to which it has already 

 given rise — the Rubber Boom in the spring of 1910. 



CHAPTER IV 



WE VISIT A SERINGAL 



We want to see for ourselves the way the present-day 

 rubber-gatherers in Brazil do their work, and the kind 

 of life they lead. So we have made a long journey by 

 boat up one of the tributaries of the River Amazon 

 to the landing-stage for a typical rubber-gatherers' 

 village. 



We step ashore straight into the forest, and are 

 warmly welcomed by a group of working men, who 

 inquire eagerly for the latest news from anyivhere, 



3 



