May, 1910.] 



395 



Saps and Exudations. 



In a report of mine issued by the Agri- 

 cultural Society of Jamaica, about a year 

 ago, on the Vrrgen rubber of Columbia 

 (it has been reprinted in many countries), 

 I emphasized the importance of rubber 

 cultivation in comparison with the 

 sparse returns obtainable from wild 

 trees. This is applicable to Para rubber 

 and all other important species of rubber, 

 including Mauicoba. In a state of nature, 

 rubber trees struggle for_ existence 

 amidst a thousand other species of trees. 

 In the near future all rubber must be 

 produced by cultivation like any other 

 great agricultural commodity. 



During the past year various owners 

 of Manicoba rubber land have beeri 

 directing attentiou to the culture of this 

 tree. I visited several plantations ranging 

 from a few acre? to a hundred acres. I 

 was anxious to investigate the cultural 

 capabilities of the tree. The owners of 

 these lands are ignorant of the lines on 

 which this culture should be initiated 

 They take it for granted that sticking 

 the Manicoba seeds cr cuttings into 

 cleared ground is all that is necessary 

 without further attention. One im- 

 portant factor is in their favour : I refer 

 to the wonderful tenacity of life and 

 recuperative power pervading this plant. 

 The primitive procedure by which the 

 incipient seedlings and cuttings are left 

 to take care of themselves with a view to 

 establishing plantations is antagonistic 

 to the development of the trees, for 

 nothing is more important than the 

 proper treatment of young plants in 

 the establishment of great prospective 

 plantations. The result of the prelimin- 

 ary attempts in question was an aggrega- 

 tion of maltreated plants. In this 

 connection it may be noted that about 

 half-a-dozen labourers only, men who 

 know nothing about cultivation and no- 

 body to instruct them, perform all the 

 work appertaining to the upkeep of 

 such plantations, comprising some fifty 

 thousand plants. Of course, they have 

 but few weeds to contend with, an im- 

 portant consideration, as they are in 

 general suppressed by the peculiar soil 

 and climatic conditions. I therefore 

 could not help coming to the conclusion 

 that, if these impoverished plantations 

 were placed under my control, I should 

 re-plant them throughout. Anyhow it 

 is important to be able to add that I 

 found two notable exceptions to this 

 crude style of planting, one of which 

 having a few thousand plants, aud the 

 other fifty thousand, on both of which 

 intelligent methods of planting had been 

 adopted. And these two plantations, 

 from a practical point of view, were 

 decidedly encouraging. The seeds and 



huge cuttings or stumps were only four 

 months planted. The seedlings in this 

 time attained a height of from four to 

 five feet, and they were exceedingly 

 healthy and vigorous. The huge cuttings 

 are procured from the forest, that is to 

 say, saplings in the forest are cut down 

 and stuck into the cleared ground to 

 form roots and permanent plants. These 

 stumps measure from six to eight feet 

 in length, both ends cut off, and in four 

 months the vigorous shoots that spring 

 from the tops are four and five feet in 

 leugth, thus a continuity of growth from 

 the sapling to the established tree. 



This plant is an invaluable acquisition 

 to rubber cultivators. It can be culti- 

 vated at a minimum cost consequent on 

 its persistent tenacity and vigour as is 

 exemplified in its native soil, and con- 

 sequent on its other merits to which I 

 have drawn attention, Further, it may 

 be stated that this tree is comparable 

 with particular products cultivated in 

 the tropics and elsewhere, products that 

 flourish in a great measure by the 

 restricted cultivation given. That is to 

 say, when we discover a region pre- 

 eminently adapted for a given culture, 

 there it yields not only the best produce 

 of its kind, but also far more econo- 

 mically. 



Again, the humble dimensions of the 

 Manicoba tree, I am convinced, is a 

 factor in its favour from a cultural point 

 of view, for it attains to a size exactly 

 suited for close planting. In the Hevea 

 (Para rubber) plantations under culti- 

 vation in the East, close planting 

 is systematically resorted to with the 

 object of forcing early crops which 

 are available from young trees of limited 

 size, for numbers collectively far more 

 than compensate for the production of 

 rubber per acre from full-grown trees 

 widely planted. As a matter of fact, 

 big trees are stated in the East to be an 

 encumbrance. 



The number of trees usually planted 

 in the East run from 100 to 200 per acre, 

 sometimes more. The number of Mani- 

 coba I advocate to be planted is 1,200, I 

 estimate that 1,200 trees per acre (exclu- 

 sive of certain returns in the fourth year) 

 will yield 600 lbs. of rubber in the fifth 

 year; and at least the same quantity 

 annually thereafter for a long period of 

 years. In many rich Manicoba zones I 

 computed the number of wild trees at 

 more than 100 per acre, some 25 per cent, 

 being tappable trees, most of the 

 remainder saplings, the forest growth of 

 which is sluggish as compared with 

 cultivation. It may be observed that a 

 wild tree occasionally yields one pound 

 of rubber at a tapping, but the average 



