105 
befall  them.  They  are  strangers  in  a strange  land,  and  all  their 
neighbours  (natives)  who  are  engaged  in  exploiting  rubber,  are  their 
rivals  and  therefore  their  enemies. 
I have  very  little  doubt  that  the  Brazilian  linn,  to  whom  the 
Brazilian  Rubber  'I'rust  have  leased  their  estates,  will  earn  verv 
considerable  firohts  every  year,  and  will  pay  their  rent  promptly  iii 
advance,  as  they  did  the  first  year. 
The  experienced  Brazilian  seringueiro  knows  how  to  work  these 
estates  to  advantage.  He  knows  howto  checkmate  the  river” 
thief ; how  to  prevent  his  rubber  cutters  from  selling  elsewhere. 
If  necessary  to  his  own  existence  and  success,  he  can,  and  will, 
remove  the  offender  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  foreigner 
lacks  the  experience,  and  even  if  he  has  lost  all  respect  for  the 
sixth  commandment,  he  dares  not  break  it  in  Brazil. 
There  is  little  more  to  be  said.  Good  foreign  labourers,  China- 
men, or  Japanese,  who  will  work  for  a wage  at  anything  they  are 
set  to  do,  seem  to  me  essential  to  the  success  of  the  foreign  com- 
pany working  rubber  properties  in  Brazil.  I may  add  here  that 
Barbadian  niggers  and  their  like  are  useless.  Needless  to  say,  the 
foregoing  observations  do  not  apply  to  the  exploitation  of  rubber 
estates  in  Africa,  Mexico,  Peru,  parts  of  Bolivia,  ^Tnezuela,  Colom- 
bia, or  any  other  rubber  producing  country  where  fairlv  efficient 
labour  can  be  obtained  for  a comparatively  small  wage. 
The  India  Rubber  World — October  rsl,  igo2. 
CULTIVATION  OF  CASTILLOA  ELASTICA 
IN  JAVA. 
Dr.  Spire  contributes  to  a French  Journal  devoted  to  tropical 
planting  (L’ Agriculture  pratique  des  pays  chauds,  Paris,  i-6,  May- 
June,  igo2,  pp.  689-698),  a comprehensive  report  on  the  planting 
of  Mexican  rubber  (Castilloa  elastica)  in  the  Dutch  East  Indies, 
based  on  personal  observatioi^  made  in  the  summer  of  1901,  from 
it  appears  that  considerable  interest  in  this  species  exists  in  that 
region.  He  mentions,  by  way  of  introduction,  former  reports  on 
the  same  subject  by  Dr.  P.  V.4N  Romburgh,  of  the  Botanical  Gar- 
den at  Buitenzorg,  Java,  who  has  been  much  interested  in  watching 
the  development  of  the  Castilloa  in  that  colony,  and  to  which 
credit  is  given  for  some  of  the  details  presented  here.  Dr.  SPiRE 
is  unable,  however,  after  a study  of  Th.  F.  KOSCHNV’S  monograph 
on  the  Castilloas,  to  determine  which  species  has  been  planted  in 
Java. 
An  interesting  fact  is  that  all  the  C istllloa  plantations  in  Java 
have  resulted  from  two  trees  planted  as  seedlings  in  1883  by  a 
Mr.  Hofland,  a coffee  planter  near  Buitenzorg.  d'hese  began  to 
fruit  in  1886  and  in  December  of  that  year  136  plants  from  seeds 
yielded  by  them  were  placed  in  the  Botanic  (iarden  at  rjikeiimeuh, 
in  an  open  field,  about  iO:\  feet  apart,  in  two  lines  forming  the 
letter  V.  In  the  third  year  twelve  of  these  seedlings  bore  fruit, 
and  in  the  fourth  year  the  more  thrittv  of  tlu'in  were  55-i  k'ct  high, 
