RUBBER IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA 10 



by the natives. Two planting companies had each 

 about 40,000 Funtumia trees under cultivation in 1911. 



Experiments have also been made with the Central 

 American rubber tree {Castilloa elastica), the Ceara tree 

 {Manihot Glaziovii), and the Assam rubber tree {Ficus 

 elastica), but none of these has given very promising 

 results up to the present. Some of the new species of 

 Manihot are also being cultivated experimentally. 



Southern Nigeria 



Since 1906 the old Colony and Protectorate of Lagos 

 has been included in the Colony and Protectorate of 

 Southern Nigeria, of which it forms the Western Province. 



The rapid development of the rubber resoiu-ces of 

 Lagos, following the discovery in the country of a rubber- 

 yieldmg tree (subsequently identified as Funtmnia 

 elastica), forms one of the most remarkable events in 

 connection with the West African rubber trade. In 1894 

 the exports were only 5,867 lb. valued at £324, but in the 

 following year they jumped to no less than 5,069,576 lb. 

 valued at £269,893, and the maximum production was 

 reached in 1896, when the figures were 6,484,365 lb. and 

 £347,721 respectively. This enormous increase in the pro- 

 duction was obtamed by destructive methods of tapping, 

 which are stated to have killed 75 per cent, of the trees, 

 and was followed by a rapid decline, the exports fallmg to 

 596,332 lb. in 1900 and 131,311 lb. in 1903. Some recovery 

 took place subsequently, and in 1906 the production of 

 rubber in Lagos was 927,627 lb. valued at £91,260. 



In the old Protectorate of Southern Nigeria (the 

 Eastern and Central Provinces of the new administration) 

 the variation m the supply of rubber has not been so 

 extreme. The exports were 874,298 lb. in 1898-9 and 

 increased to 2,251,315 lb. in 1900 ; during the next 

 two years they declined, the figures for 1902 being 

 865,834 lb., but subsequently they again increased, and 

 in 1905, the last year of the old administration, the 

 exports of rubber were 2,842,831 lb. valued at £226,387, 

 the highest figures attained. 



The exports from the whole of the new Colony and 



Protectorate of Southern Nigeria declined considerably 



during the years 1906 to 1909, the figures being 3,434,279 



lb. in 1906 ; 2,843,823 lb. m 1907 ; 1,222,203 lb. in 1908 ; 



3 



