34 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



titan 2,000,000 young trees have been set out during 

 the past twenty years, and that less than 20 per cent, of 

 these have reached maturity owing to subsequent 

 neglect in regard to cultivation. 



The third section of the rubber-producing area of the 

 Amazon Valley includes the Brazilian State of Matto 

 Grosso ; the lands adjacent to the Rivers Beni and 

 Madre de Dios in Bolivia; those comprised in the 

 Brazilian national territory extending over the Upper 

 Purus and Jurua, and known as the Acre ; the Puta- 

 mayo and Iquitos districts of Peru ; and certain por- 

 tions of Ecuador and Colombia. It is from this section 

 that the bulk of the best quality of rubber, classified as 

 fine hard Para, is exported ; and it is from this quarter 

 also that the largely increased production of recent 

 years has been obtained. It is these districts, more- 

 over, that have supplied a very great proportion of the 

 caucho (castilloa) that has been such a prominent feature 

 in the Amazon Valley for several years past and helped 

 so largely towards the development and successful pro- 

 gress of Iquitos and the districts in its vicinity. The 

 quantity of rubber exported from Iquitos is insignifi- 

 cant in comparison to the amount of caucho shipped 

 annually from that port. 



In this section the lands immediately adjoining the 

 rivers and creeks are subject to annual inundations 

 similar to those occurring in the central districts ; but 

 a short distance away from the waterways the ground, 

 as a general rule, gradually rises to an elevation above 

 the flood-level, and in many cases it attains an altitude 

 of several hundred feet. These conditions of a dry soil 

 are favourable to the development of the black hevea^ 



