if not better, than in our stiff clay soils. A ten days' lack of rain 

 does not affect it at all. It stands a much longer drought in French 

 Indo-China. 



Some other factor than these must be the cause of the failure, 

 and this can only be determined on the spot by careful and thorough 

 investigation. 



The DirectoV of Agriculture takes an equally gloomy view of all 

 the other rubber producing trees. 



" Castilloa Elastica is more at home in Jamaica though sadly 

 liable to scale and apt to die if tapped at all severely. The cost of 

 collection of this rubber in the West Indies is found to be about 2/9d. 

 a pound (Why ? Ed.), while as a shade for Cocoa it has proved most 

 pernicious. It has yet to be shown that the cultivation of Castilloa 

 is profitable in any part of the world." (All the same the Mexican 

 planters think highly of this cultivation, and talk at least of big pro- 

 fits). The Funtumia is a hardy tree, but of very doubtful utility as a 

 cultivated plant. 



The Manihot rubber is again of poor promise in Jamaica. A 

 large tree of M Glaziovii, growing in the Economic section at Hope, 

 has just been cut down, and found to be almost devoid of rubber. 



The virgin rubber (Sapium sp.) of Colombia proved to be very 

 difficult to raise from seed, and great losses of expensive seeds 

 occurred. A few hundred plants have been distributed to planters 

 in the Hills and good growth is reported. I have no faith in this 

 tree for cultivation, as a commercial source of rubber, from such 

 information as I have been able to gather." 



This part of the report finishes by adding Cotton to the Index 

 Expurgatorius of Jamaica cultivations and a warning against the 

 cultivation of vanilla. 



Possibly, this depressing state of affairs is due in sorqe measure 

 to what is described as the guiding policy, which was laid down that 

 the department should pursue the obvious agricultural needs of the 

 Colony and concern itself with staple industries rather than dally 

 with interesting novelties and curiosities of doubtful industrial value 

 and that the aims and interests of the scientist and experimentalist should 

 be made entirely subservient to those of the planter and producer in the 

 island. Knowledge is power and science is merely the latinized form 

 of the word, and matters can hardly be expected to improve if the 

 man who knows and the man who tries to find out are pushed aside 

 for the old out-of-date empiric system. Of course the scientist and 

 exp.^rimentalist are employed at Botanic Gardens to help the Planter 

 and Producer, but it is especially in a country where things fail that 

 thvy are wanted to find out why, and to show that there is a good 

 reason for the failure, and whether it is possible to turn it into a suc- 

 cess or not. Such researches into the cause of the failure of rubber 

 cultivation would be invaluable,— Ea 



