VI 



The World's Commercial Products 



through the dense forests in the Amazon valley. As recently as 1886, by the enterprise of 

 the Indian Government and with the assistance of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, it was 

 successfully introduced into Ceylon, and promises to become an important source of wealth. 

 Cultivation of this and other rubber plants is also being undertaken in parts of the tropics, 

 and the rubber trees are amongst the latest addition to the list of cultivated plants, an 

 addition which has taken place in our own generation. 



It is probably safe to say that by this time most of the useful plants of the world are known. 

 We are not likely to discover anywhere a plant which will rival wheat, rice, cotton, tea, coffee, 

 cocoa, the vine, or the chief sugar producing plants for their respective products. We 

 may add considerably to the number of cultivated plants, when, as has happened with rubber 

 trees, it becomes advantageous or desirable to cultivate them instead of relying on the 

 wild product. Much work, too, remains to be done in improving the plants already to hand. 

 This is one of the most important divisions of the work of . the botanic gardens and 

 experiment stations throughout the world, and in discussing sugar attention is directed to 

 the good results attained on these lines with the sugar cane in the West Indies, Java, etc., 

 and with the sugar beet in Europe. Similar work on other plants is being conducted 

 elsewhere, and is referred to in its appropriate place. At the present time we have 

 throughout the British Empire a well-developed system for securing the introduction of useful 

 plants into any colony, and there are no serious difficulties in introducing any plant into any 

 place where it is likely to thrive and its produce to obtain a profitable market. The latter depends 

 to a great- extent on facilities for transport. That these are in a high state of efficiency is easily 

 recognised when we think of the origin of the ordinary items of our every-day fare. The flour of 

 which our bread is made comes from America, India, Argentine, Australia, Russia, and elsewhere, 

 tea from India, Ceylon, and China, coffee from Brazil and Central America, cocoa from Ecuador, 

 the West Indies, West Africa, etc., sugar from the East and West Indies or Europe according as 

 we use cane or beet. These are all products which are easily carried, and are not damaged 

 even if delayed in the voyage. During recent years, however, other items have been added 

 to the import list, and the Channel Islands and the South of France provide us regularly with 

 large quantities of potatoes, vegetables, and fruit. More striking, however, are the 



developments resulting from scientific 

 discoveries which have rendered possible 

 rapid means of transport and cold storage. 

 Our apples, a few years ago essentially a 

 home crop, come to a very considerable 

 extent from Canada, the United States, 

 and Tasmania. In the latter instance 

 they have to withstand a voyage of six 

 weeks' duration, starting in the temperate 

 region, passing through the tropics, and 

 terminating in the temperate clime of 

 another hemisphere. Yet these apples, 

 unpacked, look as good as when they were 

 picked. Bananas, which are increasing in 

 popularity, come from such widely separa- 

 ted places as the Canary Islands, Jamaica, 

 Costa Rica, and Barbados. Delicate fruits, 

 such as grapes, reach us in safety, and 

 peaches and plums from the Cape of Good 

 Hope can be seen in increasing numbers 

 in British markets. Fruits are so easily 

 Martinique, the cultivation of cocoa damaged by any defects in the means of 



