24 



tapped, may be expected to yield about 12 lbs. of rubber per 

 annum," but a writer in the " Tropical Agriculturist " of March 

 in the present year actually estimates the yield at 965 lbs. per 

 tree in the 8th year, which, he says, at 2 shillings per lb. gives 

 £98 10s. per tree per annum, and on that basis he is able to show 

 a profit of £47,620 in the 9th year for a plantation of 500 acres, 

 and by such wild statements as this, the public is often deceived. 

 We have in the Gardens one plant of this species, which makes 

 satisfactory growth in the summer mouths, but dies down again 

 every winter. If the growth of this plant had been anything 

 like what it is in tropical countries, it should now have been 8 or 

 10 feet high, but actually it is not more than 18 inches. I, 

 therefore, reluctantly come to the same conclusion for Natal as 

 Dr. Trimen did for Ceylon at Peradiniya, viz., that it requires a 

 more tropical climate for its successful cultivation. 



Ficus elastica (Roxb). This is perhaps the best known of 

 all the trees that I have enumerated, it grows well in Natal, and 

 at Home is very much used as an ornamental plant, for which 

 purpose in its young state it is well adapted, but between that and 

 its growth as a rubber-producing plant there is a wide difference, 

 as I will try to show. The Kew Bulletin of September and 

 October, 1896, has an article headed " Cultivation of India 

 Rubber in Assam," from which I make the following extracts : — 



"The Assam Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica ' Roxb ') is a large 

 evergreen tree, found in damp forests from the base of the 

 Sikhim Himalaya eastward to Assam and Arracan. The Govern- 

 ment of India issued directions in May, 1884, that for 5 years 

 from that date the Assam plantations should be increased by 200 

 acres a year. The Government of India also desired that in 

 order to test the financial results of the cultivation of this 

 rubber, 50 mature trees should be experimentally tapped 

 annually. In the reports of subsequent years, the results of 

 these experiments are fully given. The amount of rubber 

 obtained showed singular irregularity year by year. It varied so 

 greatly that while the yield in one year was as much as 26 lbs. 

 per tree, it would fall in another year to a little over 2 lbs. The 

 value in money depended, of course, on the market, but at an 

 average price of Is. 6d. per lb. the extreme yield per tree varied 

 from 39 shillings to 36 shillings. 



The fluctuation of yield of one and the same tree in different 

 years are therefore very considerable, and they remain up to 

 the present inexplicable, since the officers under whose personal 

 supervision these experiments were made have not been able to 

 find out any reasons for, or causes of, these very material fluctua- 

 tions. There is another point of practical importance. It is well 

 known that Ficus elastica will grow with undiminished rapidity 

 and luxuriance, in situations remote from the hills, but in such 

 localities it fails to yield caoutchouc. Hence, Mr, Mann concludes 



