106 



Tnaund of lac may be reckoned on from every tree per year, which, if 

 collected at its present rate, could be delivered in Calcutta at 10 rupees 

 per maund, whilst it fetches 15 to 20 rupees per maund, there now, 

 which is a profit of 5 rupees at least per tree yearly. All these figures 

 are the lowest, and the tapping the most cautious ; still if the tree 

 planted lives a second fifty years, which it is sure to exceed, it produces 

 320 rupees for rubber and 250 rupees for lac, which is more than any 

 two timber trees of fifty years each, which might be grown in that 

 time could equal," 



Mr. Mann then deals with the two kinds of rubber manufactured by 

 the people of Assam, viz., one in irregular solid lumps or loaves about 

 16 to 20 oz., in weight, and the other in balls of rubber threads each 

 weighing 12 to 16 oz. The price paid (in 1869) for the two kinds 

 varied, he says from 8 rupees to 12 rupees but this was paid for by 

 pieces of Eri silk cloth of that value in exchange for a maund of rub- 

 ber. This fetched in Calcutta from 20 rupees to 40 rupees per maund, 

 but Mr. Mann adds " if care were bestowed on the manufacture, it be- 

 yond doubt would fetch much higher prices". Messrs Martin Ritchie 

 & Co., however, purchased their rubber only in the fluid state from 

 the people who tappped the trees. It was brought to them either 

 in earthen pots or cane baskets made water proof with a previous 

 coating of rubber, This coating of rubber Mr. Mann states, was 

 held to retain the sap in its fluid state. He goes on to say that, rub- 

 ber in this fluid state was first purchased at 8 rupees per maund, but 

 soon rose to 5 rupees for the best or thickest procured from the aerial 

 roots, and 4 rupees for the next best procured from the lower part of 

 the stem, and 3 rupees for the worst supposed to come from the upper 

 branches of the tree and to have been mixed with the juice of 'other 

 species of Figs and water. 



A full grown rubber tree of about 50 years old will yield at the 

 very lowest 10 lbs. of rubber, if very carefully tapped, and this 

 quantity may be expected about 16 times, which will be an equally 

 safe estimate for calculating the yield of a rubber tree. To be quite 

 on the safe side, calculate 10 trees per acre which would give about 

 1,600 lbs. of rubber from every acre. This, at the price at which rub- 

 ber was collected in the Darrang district and sold, and deducting the 

 expenditure incurred in collecting it, would give a net profit of 54 ru- 

 pees per 80 lbs., or 1,080 rupees per acre in 50 years, and if the rub- 

 ber trees have a longer life, the yield may be reckoned for their re- 

 maining years of life at the same if not at a higher rate. 



Collection. — Among forest trees and in regard to dimensions, this is 

 facile princeps and there is no other, not even the Banyan, that ap- 

 proaches it in dimensions and grandeur. Mr. C. Brownlow points 

 out that every portion below the head of the foster tree is strictly root 

 and incapable of throwing out a branch, and as the head is rarely less 

 than 60 to 100 feet high, it is no easy matter to procure a branch. 

 These cables and buttresses as they approach the ground, throw out 

 smaller and subsidiary rootlets of all thicknesses down to that of twine. 

 If any of these be cut they die below, but from above grow again 

 downwards. It is only necessary to see the tree to af>preciate the 

 fearful risk encountered by the gum gatherers, who by no means con- 

 fine their operations to the base but climb up as high as the roots ex- 



