THE AFRICAN RUBBER VINES iioO 



not be overlooked that M. Seret also found that C. Arnol- 

 diana vines died after being cut, so that it is possible 

 that vines which will not bear careful tapping will also 

 be killed by cutting. This and other points respecting 

 the merits of the two methods will, no doubt, be decided 

 by the results obtained in the Belgian Congo ; but by 

 the time a decision is reached it is possible that the rubber 

 vines will have ceased to be of much interest as sources 

 of rubber. 



Cultivation of the Vines. — Considerable attention was 

 formerly devoted in several parts of tropical Africa to 

 the possibility of forming plantations of the indigenous 

 rubber vines, and in the Belgian Congo in particular 

 large numbers of the vines were planted out in the forests. 

 It has been found, however, that in general the enter- 

 prise is not very successful, owing to the facts that the 

 vines are of very slow growth, that they require much 

 attention in the young state so that the cost of upkeep 

 is considerable, that they are much more difficult to 

 exploit than rubber trees, and that the retiu-ns from the 

 vines even under the best conditions are less than from 

 rubber trees. Some authorities still advocate the plant- 

 mg of rubber vines in tropical Africa in preference to trees, 

 as they allege that the failure in the past has been due 

 to the neglect of certam essential precautions ; but this 

 view is not widely held, and even m the Belgian Congo 

 the planting of vines, except on a small scale for experi- 

 mental purposes, has now been definitely abandoned in 

 favour of the cultivation . of rubber trees. In view of 

 the above facts and of the success which has attended 

 the cultivation of rubber trees in tropical Africa, it is 

 extremely improbable that any further attempts will be 

 made to plant rubber vines on a large scale, certainly 

 not in any of the British Colonies and Protectorates. 

 It is consequently unnecessary here to describe in detail 

 the methods employed, but it may be stated that the 

 usual procedure was to raise the vines from seed in nursery 

 beds and to plant out the seedlings at the base of trees 

 in the forest. Some of the species do not stand trans- 

 planting very well, and in these cases the plan was tried 

 of sowing the seed in prepared mounds of soil at the 

 places the vines were to occupy in the forest. This 

 method was, however, not very successful, as the seedlings 



