570 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



RUBBER CULTIVATION IN TRINIDAD 

 AN D TOBA GO. 



MR. J. B. CARRUTHERS ON TAPPING 

 CASTILLOA. 



Plantations in Trinidad and Tobago. 

 Rubber planting in Trinidad and Tobago is 

 in its infancy, and owing to lack of confidence 

 or the necessary technical knowledge in culti- 

 vation and extraction of latex the progress has not 

 been very rapid. There are at present in Trini- 

 dad some rubber trees of ages varying from one 

 to fifteen years of the following species, and the 

 following figures have been returned in answer 

 to circulars from the Department : — 



llevea 80,000. Castilloa 600,000. Funtuinia 25,000. 

 It is not possible to compare the growth of 

 these trees with those of similar age in Eastern 

 plantations because in the latter countries the 

 trees have been grown from their being planted 

 as stumps, on clean weeded land and the height 

 and girth under these conditions is much greater 

 than in the case of trees surrounded by weeds or 

 shading the soil with other trees and shrubs. 



I have recorded very few measurements of 

 trees in what is termed in the East "abandoned 

 land"; and this is unfortunate, as these figures 

 would be of use to compare with trees in Trini- 

 dad and Tobago which are growing either sur- 

 rounded by weeds periodically "brushed'' gene- 

 rally in association with Cacao, Erythrina (Bois 

 immortelle), Banana and other plants. From 

 general observations, however, I am of the 

 opinion that the growth of Para rubber under 

 the local conditions is very little if at all inferior 

 to that of the trees of the same species in 

 Malaya and Ceylon treated in the same way. 

 Of the relative growth of Castilloa I have still 

 less reliable data to form an opinion, but ob- 

 servations in different parts of Trinidad and 

 Tobago lead me to the belief that Castilloa and 

 Hevea (Para) grow equally well and vigorously 

 here. It is true that in places Hevea seems to 

 thrive more than Castilloa, but the reverse can be 

 observed and I do not think there is any reason 

 to suppose that, taking the island as awhole, 

 either plant grows more vigorously than the other. 

 Hevea ok Castilloa ? 

 The decision for intending rubber planters, 

 as to which plant may be expected to prove 

 more profitable, is not easily settled. The 

 chief arguments in favour of Hevea are : — That 

 it grows vigorously on comparatively poor soils 

 which are well drained. That the yields of 

 rubber from trees already tapped, as far as they 

 have gone, compare favourably with those of 

 similar age in other countries. That the me- 

 thod of extracting the latex from Para rubber 

 trees has been brought to a degree of perfec- 

 tion which, though still capable of improvement, 

 is eminently satisfactory and practical. Against 

 this, however, as previously mentioned, is the 

 argument that these methods of extracting the 

 latex from Para involve a large amount of regular 

 daily labour which we cannot hope to reduce by 

 mechanical means. That the rubber of cultivated 

 Para trees has secured a high place on the mar- 

 kets of the world as a valuable rubber, and is in 

 continual demand by the manufacturer. That 



the coagulation is easy and the preparation of dry 

 rubber a well understood and easy process. 



The arguments against Para as compared with 

 Castilloa are, that the supply of seed locally is 

 limited and importing from the far East is by 

 no means an easy or certain way of getting plants. 

 That the plant when young is greedily eaten by 

 almost all animals. I have seen many thousands 

 of plants in a large nursery browsed down by a 

 cow, and deer, monkeys, pigs, &c., are very fond 

 of the plant. 



The arguments in favour of planting Castilloa 

 elastica are to some extent more based on ex- 

 pectation than on e^act data. The tree grows 

 vigorously and in some cases when side by side 

 with Hevea compares favourably with the latter. 

 An almost unlimited supply of seed and young 

 plants is available. The important question of 

 probable yields is not an easy matter to express 

 an opinion on. Large plantations of Castilloa 

 exist in Mexico and other countries; but figures 

 of the yields, as far as they are obtainable, do 

 not show anything like the return which Hevea 

 has given in Malaya and Ceylon. The differences 

 in the returns from large areas in Mexico Cas- 

 tilloa and Malaya Para are enormous. In the 

 latter country in one State, Negri Sembilan, 

 300,000 tapped trees gave an average of 2 lb. 

 7 oz., per annum, while the highest Mexican 

 figures on a sizeable area I have seen are j lb. 



The results of all observations and experi- 

 ments which have been carried on in Trinidad 

 and Tobago are most encouraging in regard to 

 the amount and quality of the latex in the 

 tissues of Castilloa trees of age and size, but the 

 methods of extraction are at present by no means 

 satisfactory. I carried on very few experiments 

 or observations in extraction of latex from Cas- 

 tilloa when in the East the planting of that 

 tree not being considered as against Hevea. 



Since my arrival in the West Indies I have 

 been making many tentative experiments and 

 observations as to tapping Castilloa, and am of 

 the opinion that the methods which have been 

 used for extraction of latex up to the present 

 are unsuited to th"e structure of the tissue of 

 Castilloa and the arrangement of its latex 

 vessels. The use of the knife in Hevea causes 

 little or no gaping of the wound, and the bark 

 tissues can be cut smoothly and very thin. In 

 Castilloa the fibrous character of the tissues 

 makes it difficult to cut clean or thin and there 

 is always a widening of the wound which takes 

 a long time to heal and is the potential har- 

 bourer of insects, fungi and other undesirables. 

 For these reasons I am inclined to believe that 

 if the latex can be extracted with a minimum of 

 wound to the tree, and at the same time by 

 a process which can be done quickly, and is 

 therefore labour-saving, a great advance will 

 be made in the methods of tapping Castilloa. 

 Tapping of Castilloa. 

 Being of opinion that the cutting or slicing 

 of Castilloa bark was unsuitable. I began soon 

 after my arrival a series of experiments on in- 

 dividual trees with sharp pointed weapons of 

 differing dimensions, all of which were meant 

 to penetrate right down to the old wood, with 

 as small a puncture as possible. 



Can the latex be so extracted with success ? 

 It is too early to be at all confident, but the 



