IO8 THE WHOLE ART OF RUBBER-GROWING 



does not thrive as an alien. In Ceylon I 

 have seen some very handsome specimens six 

 and seven years old, but they give no latex, 

 whilst every year they are attacked by a caterpillar 

 pest which denudes the tree of every vestige of leaf 

 in a few days. They are accordingly put into 

 quarantine annually, and neither master nor work- 

 man will have a kind word to say for Funtumia. 

 Nevertheless it is a very valuable tree, and, provided 

 the right soil and suitable climate is found for it, 

 Funtumia elastica will always repay careful 

 acclimatisation. On the Ivory Coast this plant is 

 being extensively exploited. Owing to the facility 

 with which it reproduces itself, and the little trouble 

 it gives to the planter, Funtumia will undoubtedly 

 prove to be the mainstay of the rapidly growing 

 rubber industry of this part of French Africa. The 

 same may not perhaps with equal certainty be said 

 of Funtumia in German West Africa, except in the 

 Cameroons, where large areas are being devoted to 

 its cultivation. It is generally planted 10 feet apart 

 each way, and tapped by straight vertical cuts 6 feet 

 in length down the lower bole of the tree nearly to 

 the base. Not more than six such cuts are made 

 in a season, so that bark conservation is adequately 

 provided for by this system, which I am convinced 

 might with advantage be tried in Ceylon and other 

 places where the practice of bark paring for the 

 greater part of the year is already leaving its effects 

 on the young Hevea growing there. 



In Uganda Funtumia is establishing itself rapidly, 

 and increases daily in favour with planters on account 



