and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— Jan., 1910. 91 



stored for weeks before the rubber is extracted. 

 If there is much dry material to work, it is im- 

 mersed overnight to render the bark more malle- 

 able and less adhesive to the wood. 



The rubber in question is classified as second 

 clasB rubber in Angola, as it is usually badly 

 cleaned, i.e., full of particles of bark. A first- 

 class product could be obtained from this plant 

 in Angola if the natives would take the trouble 

 to cleanse the rubber more than they do. 



One-fifth of the ground traversed by the Gov- 

 ernment botanist between the Cubango and the 

 Querabo, an affluent of the Cuando, is covered by 

 this plant, from 16 deg. south latitude to the 

 Congo Basin ; it thrives better, however, in some 

 localities than in others. 



The Root Rubber 



industry, entailing a great amount of manual 

 labour, is essentially a black man's industry, 

 but the methods of extracting and preparing 

 the rubber leave much to be desired. The 

 employment of machinery would, no doubt, 

 help to solve the problem, but the lack of means 

 of communication is at present the chief ob- 

 stacle to the attainment of a higher standard. 

 Moreover, the country is not yet occupied, and 

 the natives are much too uncivilised at present 

 to admit of much improvement. Rubber is 

 gathered over a vast expai.se of country by the 

 natives, who carry it on their heads to the up- 

 country stores, where they barter it for other 

 goods. These stores are situated in the populous 

 centres and follow up the trade, the merchants 

 moving from one district to another as circum- 

 stances may require. In 1903 a European bought 

 26,500 lb. of rubber in the populous valley of 

 the Cuango, an affluent of the Kuito ; soon after- 

 wards three Portuguese factories started busi- 

 ness on that river. The produce is likewise 

 brought in by Boer wagons, the Portuguese 

 traders using these conveyances for penetrating 

 the unoccupied regions for hundreds of miles. 



In a previous report (see pp. 243-4 of the 

 Board of Trade Journal of 3Uth January, 1908), 

 reference was made to an asclepiaceae rubber, 

 of which samples were senb from Angola to 

 the Commercial Intelligence Branch of the 

 Board of Trade, with a view to inducing 

 manufacturers in the United Kingdom to 

 quote for machines and implements for ex- 

 tracting the product. A British rubber com- 

 pany has recently embarked upon this enter- 

 prise, and the machines are now on their 

 way out to Africa. The rubber grows on the 

 Burro-burro plain of the mainland of Bengu- 

 ella, which the railway is about to cross. The 

 percentage of rubber is very low, being only 

 some 2\ per cent, but with the mechanical pro- 

 cess about to be applied better and more rapid 

 results will doubtless be obtained. The British 

 firm is also sending out rubber cleaning plant, 

 for erection on the coast, that should extract 

 about 45 per cent of dirt and bark from the 

 native rubber, which has up to now been paying 

 freight and export duty. 



CULTIVATRD RUBBER. 



In the forest belt of the Loanda district 

 endeavours are being made, on the initiative 

 of the Government, to cultivate Para, Panama 

 and Lagos silk rubber trees, and in 1907 and 



1908 seeds and plants were imported \ for pur- 

 poses of distribution. An experimental station, 

 under the direction of a bctenist' from 'Kow 

 Gardens, has been established' at-H'DallaTp.ndOjf 

 a station on the Loanda-Malange Railway," foV 

 the purpose of rearing and distributing such 

 economical plants as are likely to thrive and 

 become useful for the general development of 

 agriculture in Angola, Various other agricul- 

 tural experimental stations have been set upin 

 various parts of the colony, and a laboratory has 

 been established at Loanda in which researches 

 can be made. 



With regard to cultivated rubber, it may 

 generally be said that, while there are indica- 

 tions pointing to a handsome return in the 

 future, the industry is still in an experimental 

 stage of development. Mainly owing to the 

 small yields of the present system of tapping 

 the manihot glaziovii, only poor results have 

 been attained by planters on a small scale, who 

 have not been able each to produce more than 

 a few pounds of rubber for shipment to markets 

 where many tons could be easily disposed of. 

 The better-yielding species — such as the Para, 

 Central American and Lagos silk rubbers — have 

 still to attain a sufficient age to permit of their 

 beingtapped. — Board of Trade Journal, Dec. 16. 



RUBBER AT THE BRUSSELS 

 EXHIBITION. 



It has been decided to open the Brussels Inter- 

 national Exhibition in April, 1910, and to continue 

 until November of that year. We recently had 

 the pleasure of paying a visit to the Belgian capi- 

 tal in order to see exactly what was being done. 



The old museum at Brussels which hitherto 

 has been used for general exhibits from the 

 Congo will be cleared and used expressly for 



EXHIBITS BY PLANTERS, RUBBER COMPANIES 



and others. The room is divided into separate 

 compartments and each of these will be reserved 

 for separate countries, viz., Borneo, South 

 India, Ceylon, Malaya, Java, Sumatra, etc. The 

 middle of the room will be filled with an exhi- 

 bition of educational value, having at one end 

 collections of various rubber seeds, trees of 

 various species and of different ages; tapping 

 the rubber trees will come next ; then washing 

 and curing, and finally the manufactured articles 

 in daily use will be shown. 



EVERY STAGE FROM THE SEED 



of the rubber plant to the finished tyre 

 will be shown in the middle of the room. Each 

 section around the whole of the museum will, as 

 indicated above, be used for exhibits of rubber 

 from separate countries. Here the various 

 companies throughout the world will be repre- 

 sented, and a very good collection should be on 

 view. One compartment will, according to 

 present intentions, be devoted to a display of 

 the scientific implements and apparatus used in 

 testing various rubber goods and another to 

 literature dealing with the plantation and manu- 

 facturing industries. 



This feature — a section resorved entirely for 

 planting exhibits— will in itself be quite unique, 

 —India Rubber Journal, Dec. 13. 



