562 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



flavour and colour of the most admired type. 

 Trinidad CriolLo has a bottle-necked pod, either 

 red or yellow, with small roundish light col- 

 oured seeds, not half the size of the Nicaraguan. 

 Lock— unfortunately perhaps, — does not appear 

 to have seen or recorded a bottle-necked Criotlo 

 form and there is no figure of it among Wright's 

 Illustrations of Ceylon-grown Cacao. In fact 

 it has not been sent there. I found the Nica- 

 raguan Criollo in Central America in 1886, and 

 I again found it in Nicaragua in 1893. I col- 

 lected it, with three other distinct species of 

 Cacao not hitherto well known, and introduced 

 it to Trinidad, whence I distributed plants to 

 Ceylon a year later. These plants are the 

 parents which produced the fruit of Nicaraguan 

 Criollo figured by Wright at p. 28 of his work, 

 and exactly correspond with figures and draw- 

 ings by Preuss, who shows the bean at p. 166, 

 Fig. I, and the pod in Plate I, Fig. II, as he 

 saw them in Nicaragua. Wright mentions that 

 Preuss " states that Criotlo is neither native or 

 rcild in Trinidad, but has been introduced 

 there." This gives an erroneous impression, as 

 Preuss was referring to the Venezuelan Criollo 

 (see page 40 of Wright's work.) He did not 

 find the Trinidad form in his 14daysstay here; 

 personally I did not find it until after nearly as 

 many years search. The pods exhibited by the 

 Department of Agriculture cannot claim close 

 affinity with Nicaraguan ; but have all the 

 characters of Trinidad Criollo. The statement 

 that there is 11 no accepted standard" cannot 

 be sustained, for more than one reason, as this 

 Cacao has recently been valued on account of 

 its unique character at nearly double the value 

 of Trinidad Cacao. It is not now grown ex- 

 clusively in Nicaragua, but still appears plenti- 

 fully in the neighbourhood of Rivas on the 

 estates of Monsieur Menier and others. Certain 

 minor differences in form no doubt occur, as 

 Mr. Carrutherssays, in pods upon the same tree. 

 But it is yet to be recorded that the bottle- 

 necked form of pod changes to a high- shouldered 

 form, or that the large bean of the Nicaraguan 

 ever changes to the small one of the Trinidad 

 Criollo and vice versa. The classifications of 

 Hart and Morris are said by Wright to be 

 applicable to Ceylon, on account of the fact he 

 mentions (viz.,) " that most of our seed supplies 

 have been obtained from Trinidad." — (Wright, 

 p. 29). It is on this page I find the sentence 

 adopted by Mr. Carruthers, in which Wright 

 quotes Preuss, as stating that the classes of 

 Hart and Morris " do not strictty apply even in 

 Trinidad itself." This statement, it may be 

 noted, came from a gentleman who was able 

 to make only a hurried examination of the 

 countries he visited, but whose experience is 

 far from equal to that of the writers he dis- 

 cusses, from one of whom he sought his Trinidad 

 information. The fact is, I introduced a valu- 

 able variety of Cacao from Nicaragua, I know 

 it well and its points, and I cannot accept the 

 nomenclature adopted by the Department of 

 Agriculture as representing Nicaraguan Criollo, 

 when I know it to be something altogether 

 different, well distinct, and more valuable than 

 that exhibited by the Department. And I again 

 venture to ask that the Department be good 

 enough to furnish for the information of the So- 

 ciety the source or origin of the pods in question. 



PLANTATION RUBBER 



MR. J. PARKIN'S VIEWS. 



Mr John Parkin, m.a., f.l.r,, writes in the 

 course of an interesting article on "The Science 

 and Practice of Para Rubber Cultivation," 

 which is published in the April issue of Science 

 Progress, as follows : — 



The Quality of Plantation Rubber. 

 The rivalry which is now commencing bet- 

 ween plantation Para rubber and the wild pro- 

 duct of Brazil will be keenly felt in the near 

 future. The latter has been the Standard 

 caoutchouc for a long period, and buyers can 

 rely on its uniform, excellent qualities. Manu 

 facturers have their machinery especially adap- 

 ted for its manipulation. Its requirements as 

 regards vulcanisation are known exactly. It is 

 the specified brand to be employed in a number 

 of Government and other contracts. Little 

 wonder then that plantation rubber should 

 have met with some little opposition at the 

 outset. The surprise rather is that it has come 

 to the front so quickly. This early success is 

 largely no doubt to be attributed to the general 

 shortage in the raw rubber supply, but is 

 partly also due to the great purity of the plan- 

 tation article. It can be used directly for mak- 

 ing rubber solution and is largely bought up 

 for this purpose. Wild Para has first to undergo 

 the laborious process of cleaning. 



If plantation rubber had appeared in quantity 

 ten or fifteen years ago, it would most likely 

 have had a harder uphill fight to find a good 

 market. The supply of Brazilian Para relative 

 to the world's demand was then much greater. 

 Manufacturers would have been chary about 

 risking their money and reputation on an untried 

 raw material. For the planting community, 

 then, it would seem that cultivated rubber has 

 arisen at a most opportune time. Manufacturers 

 are obliged to turn their attention to it, and by 

 doing so must hasten on improvements in its 

 preparation, so that ultimately it will take a 

 place in the rubber market second to none. 



Though the best grades of plantation rubber 

 have almost invariably received a higher price 

 per pound than fine Brazilian Para, yet the buyer 

 is in reality purchasing the cultivated caout- 

 chouc at a rather cheaper rate, for the wild 

 rubber suffers a loss of 10 to 15 per cent, of its 

 weight in washing, whereas the plantation pro- 

 duct loses hardly 1 per cent. Rubber planters 

 will not be content to rest till their article 

 fetches a relatively higher price than fine Para. 



The influences above mentioned no doubt 

 keep the value of plantation rubber intrinsically 

 rather lower than that of the Brazilian export ; 

 but at the same time there is a general impres- 

 sion that the former lacks to some extent the 

 strength and elasticity of the latter. This 

 is at present a much disputed point. But 

 taking into account both the general bias 

 of manufacturers for the well-tried wild article 

 and also the variety in shape and quality of 

 the cultivated rubber now on the market, there 

 would seem to be little ground for regarding 

 the best grades of plantation as inferior to fine 

 hard Para. A fair amount of badly prepared 



