^75 



above mentioned have not given even this attention to the industry 

 except Minas Geraes which collects an export duty of 4 per cent. 

 ad valorem. In these seven states the first comer may harvest the 

 crop wherever he may find it on the public domain. 



On the other hand, the state of Para from which by far the 

 largest shipments are made, encourages the planting of caoutchouc, 

 by offering a premium of 1,000,000 reis, or over §1,000 for every 

 2,000 trees that are properly planted. This law, which has been 

 in force only four years, is already stimulating the the development 

 of rubber plantations and its wisdom is being conclusively demon- 

 strated. This large state, which embraces all the lower part of the 

 Amazon and some of its mightiest tributaries will not have to rely, 

 in the coming years, upon supplies that grow wild in the forests ; 

 1:1 fact, no source of rubber so freely tapped as that in Para can be 

 relied upon indefinitely to yield an unfailing supply. The clays of 

 exhaustion will come just as they have overtaken the rubber vines 

 of West Africa, which have all been killed for many miles inland 

 from the coast. The only way to supply the future demand will be 

 to increase the quantity, and that can be done only by rubber 

 planting, which, in a few decades, will revolutionize the business 

 1 he world now depends almost solely upon the wild sources of 

 supply, but there will be a great deal of plantation rubber in the 

 market before the century now beginning is very far advanced. 



The State of Sao Paulo also offers a handsome premium for the 

 development of rubber plantations, and both these states impose 

 a comparatively heavy tax upon the exports of rubber with the 

 wise intention of devoting a considerable part of the receipts fo the 

 conservation and encouragement of the industry. Matto Grosso, 

 under the law of 1 898, offers special facilities for the acquirement 

 of a fixed quantity of rubber lands by those who discover them in 

 the vast part of the public domain that is still unexplored. Ama- 

 zonas and Bahia are not yet offering special inducements for rub- 

 ber planting, but the land laws, adopted by these states in 1897, 

 facilitate private ovvneiship in rubber forests and this is a long 

 step toward establishing the industry on a stable basis. 



All these improvements in the status of the rubber industry of 

 Brazil have been made within the past four years, They encourage 

 the belief that this great source of wealth will come, more and 

 more, to be managed scientifically in the interest of Brazil and of 

 the world and the great advantage of the investors of capital. 



Gun ,\ Percha in New Guinea. 



Fur some years there has been a report that Gutta-percha ul 

 good quality had been found wild in German New Guinea, and the 

 German Government naturally much interested in this matter, 

 offered a large reward for its discovery. As early as November 

 1895, Professor Engler described in the Notiz-blatt des Konigl, 

 Bot. Gart. und Mus zu Berlin No. 3. p. 101, four plants from King 

 Wilhelm's Land, where the following names are applied to the pro^ 

 duct. Getah Susu [Palaqiiium Susu Engl) the best kind, Getali 

 Maran (Pa vena Bawun Scheff) Getah Natu (Payena Afe/itseiiiK. 



