319: 
sense explored, and they only require intelligent and systematic 
methods for gathering the rubber to ied their wealth to the 
first comer who has the necessary enterpr 
or instance, the forest to rn ch T have already referred as 
lying between Makali and Kruto may be roughly estimated to 
cover the greater portion of Vv district E the Seli river 
on the west and the Bagwe on the east, and an east and west line 
rawn through ato in the north, and a similar line drawn 
through Makali in the south, 
This area comprises portions of the Kuniki and Koranko 
districts, and the extent of forest land within it may, on the most 
moderate calculation, be computed at about 600 square miles 
Along a great portion of the route taken by my party a pee 
is of ies eight to ten years’ growth, but in Dy parts of the 
district there is, I have no doubt, the virgin forest; but even in 
the forests of recent growth there is abundance of ii and 
three kinds of suc planis, Mere pointed out to me were 
vines called, respectively, in the Timni language * lilibue " and 
* nofe," a nd the third a dus called; in the same language ** kewatia.” 
The “ lilibue " yields the choicest rubber in the protectorate. In 
, however, always cut down. In the case of the “nofe” vine 
it is invariably cut up into small pieces of about 6 inches in 
length, and ies completely destroyed. The * kewatia, 
rubber tree, appears to grow rapidly, and in eight or ten years to 
attain a girth of from 2 to 3 feet, but the tree, however, like the 
“nofe,” is also destroyed in the process of gathering its rubber; it is 
felled, and the bark ringed at intervals of about 6 inches along the 
tr unk, The rubber appears to be treated in a different way to 
that of the vines; the latter is, as you know, coagulated with lime 
juice, but the rubber pio exudes from the rings cut in the tree 
is plac ed in hot water the surface of which it coagulates, 
and is then cut into ps, Whiten. are formed into balls for the 
market. 
I have ventured, at the risk of being tedious, to go into detail in 
describing the manner in which the rubber is gathere 
I think we must all admit that the native processes “are crude 
and wasteful in the extreme, and it is evident if more intelligent 
and economical methods were adopted, as E pii ci is the 
a far larger yield, and every probability that ees West African 
rubber would command as hi gh a price as South American. But 
if some steps are not taken to teach the natives better methods 
of extracting rubber than they now use, it may safely be predicted 
that with the increasing demand for rubber, in a few years the 
plant will become extinct, and an pid which should be one of 
the most thriving in the colony will be ruined. 
In the forests I am speaking of the dispen is gathered by Susu 
traders in the crude and wasteful manner I have described. The 
former, appear to be very ignorant of its v and the methods of 
gathering it. I feel quite convinced that if traders were to either 
go themselves or send as agents into these parts men well 
a8 ag 
experienced in the iniu. they would be rewarded for heir 
trouble and expense with rich ests, 
14523 B 
J 
