The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



RUBBER NEWS FROM BRAZIL. 



The " Brazilian Review "has some very per- 

 tinent remarks about the wild rubber industry 

 in its issue of the 16th November. It is not 

 easy, apparently, for foreigner-is to learn the 

 ropes, and English companies formed to collect 

 rubber in Brazil almost invariably end in failure. 

 They pay too much for their property to begin 

 with, and the men they send out, generally 

 without any experience of the very peculiar 

 conditions ruling in the Amazon, are robbed 

 and victimised on every hand. Even if they 

 collect a little rubber, it is, according to your 

 contemporary, at enormous cost, and thoy are 

 lucky if half of it is not stolen before it gets to 

 market. As regards future competition be- 

 tween plantation rubber and wild Para, the 

 "Brazilian Review" has no doubt as to which will 

 succumb. "50 per cent, of the rubber shipped 

 on the Amazon is," it says, "of inferior kinds 

 which obtain only 60 per cent, of the price of 

 fine hard Para.' It is this inferior rubber that 

 will suffer and go to the wall when the East 

 produces 30,000 or 50,000 tons per annum, all of 

 as high quality as Para fine. The halcyon days 

 of wild rubber are numbered." As for planting 

 in Brazil, the same paper says that no foreign 

 capital is likely to be invested on a iarge scale so 

 long as export duties of 20 per cent, such as 

 now rule on the Amazon are maintained, where- 

 as in British Colonies, where labour is much 

 more abundant and cheaper, there are no export 

 duties whatever. [The writer forgets the Straits, 

 though the export duty there is very small. — 

 A. M. & J. F.] Under such circumstances, com- 

 petition by Brazil will soon be impossible 

 for every kind of rubber except the finest grades. 



It must also be remembered that though 

 there are undoubtedly very valuable tracts of 

 rubber-producing land to be found in the var- 

 ious tropical South American States, the great 

 drawback to them is their inaccessibility and 

 the want of sufficient and reliable labour for 

 their successful exploitation. The laud laws of 

 the South American States are exceedingly com- 

 plex, and the difficulty of obtaining indefeasible 

 titles for land in those States, particularly as 

 regards forest or rubber land, is often almost 

 unsurmountable. 



No less than 2,863 tons of rubber, worth 

 £1,380,000, were shipped from Brazilian ports 

 in the last twenty-one days of October, and this 

 no doubt accounts to some extent for the recent 

 fall in price. Heavy supplies were also expected 

 during November and December. — Georgos in 

 Madras Mail, Jan. 5. 



GOVERNMENT AID TO RUBBER 

 PLANTERS IN BRAZIL. 



We have received a communication from a 

 friend in Brazil from which it appears that 

 the Brazilian Federal Government is about to 

 make a move in favour of 



SYSTEMATIC PLANTING 



of rubber. It is proposed to offer those who 

 will undertake to plant a million trees or so, 

 free land and total exemption from duties on 

 exports of rubber for a long term of years, with 

 possible participation by Government in profits. 



As the only territory where the Federal Gov- 

 ernment is supreme is the Acre (the rest of the 

 country being under the immediate control of 

 the State Governments) the experiment will be 

 made there. The soil and climate of the 



ACRE TERRITORY 



are reputed to be the best possible for 

 rubber, and the former improves very much 

 under cultivation. Cacao is also indigenous and 

 grows well. This departure will, according 

 to our correspondent, come off early in 1910 

 after the Budget is voted ; the business will be 

 thrown open to tender and the best terms ac- 

 cepted. Little surprise will, we think, be felt 

 at this new development ; it must be borne in 

 mind that trees planted next year will not come 

 into bearing until after 600,000 acres are pro- 

 ducing in the East, liabour will also severely 

 handicap planting enterprises in Acre.— India 

 Rubber Journal, Dec. 13. 



AGRICULTU RE IN NYASALAND. 



Mr. S. Simpson, formerly Senior Lecturer 

 on Agriculture at the Government Agricultural 

 College, Egypt, read a paper on " The Agri- 

 cultural Development of Nyasaland " before the 

 Colonial section, Society of Arts, John Street, 

 Adelphi, yesterday. Sir H, Johnston presided. 



Mr Simpson — said that real progress had been 

 made in Nyasaland, especially in the last three 

 years. Natives were becoming accustomed to 

 work for longer periods than formerly and 



LABOUR WAS BOTH PLENTIFUL AND WILLING, 



though not very efficient. The questions of trans- 

 port had been a great barrier to progress, but 

 now it was possible to get the main crops from 

 Blantyre to London or Liverpool for ^d. a pound 

 by sending them to Port Herald by the Shire 

 Highlands Railway. There was too much trans- 

 shipment before the ocean steamer was reached, 

 and the transport problem could never be really 

 solved until there was railway communication 

 with the sea coast at Beira. Coffee was an 

 easy crop to manage, and in the right soil it gave 

 a steady return in spite of low prices. 



COTTON 



growing was now a firmly established industry, 

 the area devoted to cotton cultivation would 

 gradually increase. The latest reports stated 

 that the crops were excellent, and the quality 

 was such that it was quoted at 2d. to 2Jd. above 

 middling American ; in fact, the quality ap- 

 peared to be better than was produced by Am- 

 erican Upland seed anywhere else in the world. 



TOBACCO 



had become an established product of the 

 country, and now the Imperial Tobacco Com- 

 pany had decided to come into the country 

 and had opened a buying factory there. From 

 a value in tobacco exported in 1900 of £113, 

 they had grown to an export amounting to 

 £14,252 in 1909. The planting of exotic rubber- 

 producing trees was making progress through- 

 out the Protectorate, and the acreage under 

 cultivation was rapidly increasing. Live stock 

 generally had not received the attention which 

 it deserved. The country could also produce 

 a useful and valuable class of timber. 



The Chairman— in moving a vote of thanks, 

 said that for cotton growing Nyasaland was un- 

 doubtedly well suited.— Loudon Times, Dec. 1, 



