Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. Ixiii. 



these trees in various districts of the colony, more especially in the North 

 West. The planting was followed by most disappointing results. It was 

 found that the yield of rubber from the sapium-tree was small ; that 

 when tappings were repeated for more than a few days at a time, in 

 place of establishing a wound-response the rubber yielded became "tacky" 

 and unsaleable, and that the cuts in the bark of the tree did not readily 

 heal and remaining open supplied opportunities for insect and fungoid 

 attacks to which the tree is very susceptible. The yield of the cultivated 

 trees proved to be far lower than that of the indigenous trees. The land 

 planted in sapium has therefore been either abandoned or replanted with 

 Para rubber. 



Suitability of British Guiana ror Eubber Planting. 



A recent writer in this Journal appeared to believe that I have done 

 all that I could do to discourage the rubber industry. This is untrue. 

 My views are on record in the following, written and published early in 

 1907 :— 



."It is very much to be regretted that several years ago, when Sir 

 " William Thistleton-Dyer suggested that attempts should be made in 

 " planting rubber-bearing trees in parts of the forest-land of British 

 *' Guiana, the great value of his advice was not appreciated and the 

 " opportunity was neglected. All that can now be said is that many parts 

 „ of the colony appear to be almost ideally suited for the cultivation of 

 ,, certain kinds of rubber-trees." 



What I actually did, and upon which the statement in Timefiri may 

 have been based, was to indignantly refuse certain offers to make it well 

 worth my while to join in booming the colony as a land having vast 

 reserves of Sapium and Hevea rubber trees and great potentialities for 

 their cultivation. These overtures were made to me in Loudon in 1907. 

 Similar overtures were made about the same time to the late Commis- 

 sioner of Lands and Mines, Mr. Frank Fowler, F.G.S., and received like 

 treatment from him. 



The Department under my charge has done everything in its power 

 to encourage the rubber-industry ; the Governors, especially Sir Frederic 

 Hodgson and Sir Walter Egerton, similarly have made every effort 

 feasible in the same direction ; whilst the appointment in 1913 of our 

 present Government Botanist, Mr. C. K. Bancroft, a recognised expert 

 on Para rubber-growing, is a proof that the Colonial Office shares the 

 view that many parts of the colony are ideally suited for the cultivation 

 of Para rubber. 



The greatest set-back in progress the Para rubber-industry has exper- 

 ienced was the almost complete failure of the shipments of Para rubber 

 seeds from Malaya in 1910-1911 due to an attempt to improve on our 

 directions as to mode of packing, the seeds being sent in hermetically 

 sealed tins instead of merely closely covered ones. This caused the loss 

 of 527,400 seeds which if they had retained their normal germinating 



