290 



[October, 1910. 



society among the villagers, but given 

 such a man, it should be in some ways 

 an easier task than say in Scotland. 

 The fact that a village is usually of 

 people of the same caste and condition 

 renders it easier, and the fact that the 

 people often co-operate in the care of 

 the paddy fields, and that they often 

 have " common " or village land, For 

 example, if the villagers would co-oper- 

 ate to grow some saleable crop upon 

 part of the common land, they might 

 make a little money very easily. Or if 

 in opening chenas they would plant a 



few more permanent crops such as coco- 

 nuts, on a small portion of the land, 

 these to be ultimately the joint property 

 of all who co-operated in the chena. 



Co-operation may take many forms. 

 A society may co-operate to lend money, 

 to buy good tools, manure, or seed, to 

 sell stock, to produce, to labour to- 

 gether, or what not. The essential 

 point is the cheapening of production, 

 or the increase of the yield of sales. In 

 either case, therefore, it relieves the 

 depressed financial position of the pro- 

 ducer, the real obstacle to all progress. 



GUMS, RESINS, SAPS AND EXUDATIONS. 



PARA, MANaOS AND THE AMAZON. 



(By the Editor of The India Rubber 

 World, Vol. XLII., No. 3, June 1, 1910.) 



Third Letter. 



Para agreeably Disappointing— Com- 

 fortable though in the Tropics— Excel- 

 lence of the Public Services — Visits to 

 the Governor, tiie Mayor, and the Clubs 

 — Views of the People and Interviews 

 with some of them — Para as a Rubber 

 Centre— Methods of Conducting the 

 Trade. 



I must confess that I was agreeably 

 disappointed in Para. The steamer gos- 

 sips had said much about the city, and 

 little that was good. I paid twelve 

 milreis a day at the hotel and found 

 both service and food excellent. My 

 bed-room, with its lofty bare walls, 

 12 feet double casement, and narrow 

 bed with mosquito net draped over a 

 white parasol and hanging in graceful 

 folds to the floor, was just my idea of a 

 tropical apartment. To be sure, if one 

 lighted a lamp and put ib in the open 

 casement at night it was possible to 

 coax mosquitoes in. Some visitors do 

 this and then kick. I did not. I had 

 my cheerful little brown chamber man 

 look through the net in mid-afternoon 

 for mosquitoes, then tuck it securely 

 under the mattress, and what few bites 

 I got did no harm. 



As long as we are talking about mos- 

 quitoes, there are two kinds that work 

 mischief — the little black ones that carry 

 malaria, and the larger striped ones that 

 may or not provide yellow fever. We 

 recognized both kinds and they recog- 

 nized us, but nothing came of it. 



The day of my arrival a Portuguese 

 physician, who was a frieud of a friend 

 of mine in Rio, called and left a packet 



of powders with direction to " take one 

 every morning," and I would not have 

 yellow fever. His medicine was all right. 

 I took it three days and escaped ; then 

 somebody stole the box and so I couldn't 

 experiment further. Speaking of yellow 

 fever, it would be foolish for any one 

 to disregard ordinary precautions. But 

 to my mind the pneumonia of our 

 northern clime is much more easy to 

 get and just about as fatal. Yellow 

 fever is endemic in Para. There were 

 several deaths a week while I was there, 

 but it was a, question if they were all 

 yellow fever. Most of those who died 

 from it were from the lowest classes, 

 who weaken their stomachs by drinking 

 "cachaca" and then get what may be 

 a low malarial fever or almost any kind 

 of bilious fever ; it all goes down as 

 " amarilho." 



A Beautiful City. 

 The city itself is exeediugly beautiful. 

 Near the water front it develops some 

 smells other than those produced by 

 rubber, but up in the city proper it is 

 fine and clean. The cafes, with tiny 

 round tables out on the side walks, 

 remind one very much of Paris. In 

 the residence section — for example the 

 Avenida Nazareth— the elegant homes, 

 luxuriant tropical gardens, the well- 

 paved streets, and the shaded side walks 

 are worth coming a long distance to 

 see. Before daylight every morning an 

 army of labourers sweep every city 

 street, using broad palm branches, one 

 of which does the work of a dozen 

 brooms. The litter is then carted away 

 in huge covered tip carts, each drawn 

 by a single well-fed, patient-eyed steer. 

 Then in the afternoon the heavy showers 

 come and help notably in this street 

 cleaning. The city in many respects is 

 very modern. Automobiles are there in 



