2^2 
RUBBER  IN  MYSORE. 
The  following  is  taken  from  Mr.  Cameron’S  lecture  to  the  Plan- 
ters association  of  Southern  India. 
So  pressing  is  the  demand  for  good  rubber  at  the  present  time 
that,  while  experts  are  exploring  the  world  for  further  supplies,  the 
chemists  are  actually  trying  to  manufacture  an  artificial  caoutchouc. 
If  they  should  succeed  in  the  latter  attempt,  rubber-planting  would, 
1 suppose,  become  an  unproruable  enterprise.  But  it  is  uidikely 
that  they  will  succeed  to  copy  nature  exactly.  I should  here  men- 
tion that  an  artificial  product  claiming  to  possess  all  the  best  pro- 
perties of  gutta-percha  is  now  manufactured  in  Germany,  and  is 
used  for  Insulating  wires  and  cables.  Then  let  us  see  how  we  stand 
in  regard  to  a possible  rubber  industry  in  .Southern  India.  Of 
several  rubber-producing  plants  on  trial,  the  American  trees  stand 
out  prominently  in  the  estimation  of  the  public.  These  are  Hevea 
braziliensis,  producing  Para-rubber,  Cmtilloa  dastica,  the  source 
of  Central  American  or  Panama  rubber,  and  Manihot  ^laziovii, 
which  yields  Ceara  rubber ; liere  entered  in  the  order  of  merit  as 
regards  the  quality  and  value  of  their  respective  rubbers.  But  the 
prominence  of  these  trees  in  due  to  their  extensive  use  and  pro- 
ductiveness in  America,  where  they  form  part  of  the  aborescent 
flora  of  the  country,  and  we  have  still  to  learn,  to  a large  extent 
how  far  they  may  prove  remunerati\e  to  the  .State  and  planter  when 
cultivated  as  exotics  in  this  country. 
d'his  brings  me  to  my  own  experience  of  the  three  treos,  and  as 
far  as  their«  utilitv  to  Mvsore  is  concerned,  I am  going  to  reverse 
the  order  of  things  by  putting  Ceara  first  and  Para  last.  Within 
the  first  decade  the  Ceara  tree  has  thriven  amazingly,  and  has  cer- 
tainly come  to  stay  in  the  country.  It  will  flourish  from  the  sea- 
side to  an  elevation  of  at  least  4,000  feet.  Matured  trees  shed  their 
leaves  so  abundantly  that  thousands  of  seedlings  can  be  picked  up 
wherever  a few  trees  abound.  Nor  is  it  an  unproductive  tree,  as 
it  has  so  long  been  considered  in  this  country.  Recent  tapping 
experiments  in  the  Lai  Bagh  have  conclusively  proved  that  trees 
ranging  in  age  from  8 to  i 4 years  are  highly  charged  with  latex, 
and  that  the  latter  flows  freely  when  tapped  at  the  correct  season  . 
and  in  the  proper  place.  During  .he  dry  season,  when  the  tree  is 
leafless,  the  large  root  limbs  should  be  tapped;  and  after  the  rains 
the  operation  should  be  transferred  to  the  trunk,  which  yields  its 
milk  sap  freely  throughout  the  cold  season.  These  experiments 
have  also  proved  that  as  regards  the  productiveness  of  latex,  no 
two  trees  are  exactly  alike.  Between  the  two  extremes  of  a copi- 
ous discharge  and  ha’clly  any  discharge  at  all,  we  seem  to  possess 
every  degree  of  productiveness.  This  peculiarity  does  not  appear 
to  be  due  to  situation,  ex[)Osure,  or  even  the  quality  of  the  soil,  in 
whole,  as  two  trees  growing  together  under  the  same  conditions  of 
soil,  etc.,  were  found  to  be  wholly  different  in  the  amount  of  latex 
they  contained.  It  seems  to  be  rather  a constitutional  feature  that 
some  trees  contain  more  lateciferous  vessels  than  others.  In  view 
