29 



Two varieties of rubber plant are found in the Acre territory, the 

 caoutchou which has to be cut down in order to extract the sap, and 

 the Hevea which is merely tapped. In some cases the trees are 

 tapped during a period of two years and are them rested for a similar 

 period. Other rubber trees are tapped for six years at a time and 

 then left untouched for a like time. The trees selected for tapping in 

 the Acre are usually from 30 to 40 years of age and are expected to 

 yield for 20 years after which they become useless. (C. Goslings 

 Consular report, Bolivia, 1910). 



Surninam. 



Here, as elsewhere, the cultivation of rubber continues to excite 

 a good deal of attention. There are, it is estimated, some 17,000 

 trees growing, besides a large number of young plants yet to be put 

 out. Some 800,000 seeds are expected from Ceylon at the end of the 

 present year (1910) in addition there are a certain number of trees 

 in the Colony which are now yielding seed. A species of the Hevea 

 (Hevea Guianensis) is indigenous to the Colony. The percentage 

 of rubber yielded by the variety is less and the quality very inferior 

 to that obtained from Hevea Braziliensis. (Consular Report, for 1909.) 



Fiji. 



The cultivation of rubber in the Fiji Islands appears from the 

 Agricultural report of 1909, to be effected under some difficulties not 

 shared in by other parts of the world, namely from hurricanes and 

 scale insects. Para rubber suffered much from the hurricane during 

 which at one place nearly half were broken down, but none were up- 

 rooted ; in other parts of the Colony, however, the damage was con- 

 fined to the loss of the leaves. The broken trees were trimmed and 

 tarred and they recommenced sprouting. 



The growth of the tree does not seem to be quite up to our mark 

 for good growth here. The average for 60 plants is given as at one 

 year old 4.0 inches girth at 3 feet ; 5.75 inches at 2 years old, 9.2 at 

 3 years old. Plants planted at Lantoka in 1907 are only (1909) five feet 

 tall. The Superintendent of Agriculture considers the plant un- 

 suitable for the dry parts of the island. 



In cultivation cowpease are planted in the spaces between the 

 trees and weeds chiefly Mikania scmidens allowed to grow which 

 covers the ground with a thick mat of vegetation and has to be pre- 

 vented from climbing over the trees. 



Castilloa and Ceara rubber have suffered from scale. 



The rainfall in the islands seemsj^to be about the average for Para 

 rubber cultivation; 98.27 in some parts to 130.43, which is high, and 

 in Lantoka only 60.86, which probably accounts for the low rate of 

 growth there referred to above. 



