and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



191 



yield, and were thus several years ahead of us. 

 They also had planted Para rubber (Baca 

 'BrasiLiensis), but more as experiments. Puntu- 

 mia rubber was now coming to the front. A strip 

 cut off from a biscuit 5 in. long, 1 in. wide, and 

 about \ in. thick stretched out to 35 in., 

 seven times its length, before it broke. Fun- 

 tumia elastica rubber would, therefore, take the 

 first place, always provided it was planted and 

 its latex scientifically treated. Next came Para 

 rubber (Hevea Brasiliensin) ; for West Africa 

 an exotic tree. These two kinds were the most 

 important. Hevea was from the Brazils and 

 from the East. On the Gold Coast, however, 

 the natives brought the 



edAek fkom Landolphia Otrariensis, 

 from the Eastern part of the Colony. It was a 

 fine white rubber, which did not turn black in 

 coming into contact with the air. So far, how- 

 ever, it had puzzled the planters. It took too 

 long a time to get a tapping face on its main 

 stem. Manihot, an exotic tree from CearaMani- 

 coba, would grow on drier land and on rather 

 higher altitudes, where Hevea and Funtumia 

 would not do well. It was an interesting tree, 

 and grew fast. Some species often made seed 

 after the second year and could be tapped in the 

 third. In Aburi, Manihot Glaziovii did not do 

 well, but there the ground was too rocky and too 

 dry. The Germans in East Africa had found 

 that this was the most remunerative for their 

 country there. In Ceylon also they were taking 

 it up again after having abandoned it for some 

 time. Of late, however, 



THREE KINDS FROM MANICOBA 



had been introduced (they are Manihot dicho- 

 toma, M. heptaphylla, M. piauhyenris) which 

 promised much better results, and they were to 

 replace everywhere by Manihot Glazievii. The 

 rubber came near to Para rubber, was harder 

 but had less elasticity ; its price was about 6d 

 below Para. Last came 



FICUS ELASTICA, 



several kinds ; the cne or the other kind grew 

 all along the coast. There was one tree which 

 had proved very unsuccesssful. He thought no 

 further attempt to introduce it in West Africa 

 should be made. It was the Castilloa, a fast 

 growing, soft-wooded tree from Mexico. In 

 Aburi everyone had been attacked by the bore- 

 worm after good growth and withered away. 

 Some years ago when he saw the scarcity or 

 rather the increased demand for rubber com- 

 ing on (it was the time when the Cotton Gro- 

 wing Association was formed) ho went to Sir 

 Alfred and told hirn that rubber also, and 

 even principally, should be grown in West 

 Africa, and he said rubber could be grown 

 as well as cotton, but that rubber took a long 

 time to grow. The general opinion was then 

 not so far advanced as it was now. It was now 

 generally acknowledged that rubber had become 

 a necessity as much as steel and iron. If rubber 

 did not take so long to grow or rather to give 

 returns, all the plantations now working and 

 being still started would never have come into 

 existence. If rubber had been an annual like 

 wheat and many other products, or even if it 

 was a biennial, it would never have reached 

 such prices as it had today. When once the 



trees began to yield they ^vent on, some as far 

 as eighty to a hundred years, and increased in 

 yield up to about fifty years, after which they 

 remained somewhat stationary. They required 

 very little attention during that time. Only the 

 Manihot family made an exception. These were 

 at th eir best at about twenty years of a»e 

 some even sooner, and then declined, but these 

 reproduced quickly, and were at their tapping 

 stage at the age of three years. There was, 

 therefore, plenty of compensation fur the in- 

 vestor who could wait. There were 



NOW ANNUALLY ABOUT 80,000 TONS OF 

 RUBBER GROWN, 



of which about 50,000 or more are good quali- 

 ties. Besides this there were about 



65,000 TONS RECLAIMED RUBBER CONSUMED. 



It was only the fine rubber there would be a 

 demand for, and that must be planted ; wild 

 rubber must now decrease year by year and be 

 superseded by plantation rubber. He meant 

 that the 40,000 tons Para rubber coming annu- 

 ally from the Brazils would, as it were, be domes- 

 ticated and become plantation rubber. Every 

 tree would be cared for and qualities improved, 

 too. And for such plantations, Africa, especi- 

 ally West Africa, and the territories named 

 had the widest and most suitable field. When 

 rubber plantations were started, many other 

 products would be planted with it. Fruit fibres 

 spices, tobacco and eo on, and when with the 

 extension of railways, these could easily be 

 brought to the ports, quantities would always 

 bo large, and Sir Alfred would have to increase 

 his fleet to carry them. 



On the invitation of the chairman, Mr. Jamos 

 Irvine said he spoke as chairman of the company 

 of which Mr. Fisher was the trusted managing 

 Director, in which capacity he had already three 

 times visited the property since the formation of 

 the company. The rubbergrown there needed no 

 proof now, for they all knew that in something 

 like seven years 



THE EXPORT FROM THE GOLD COAST 



alone rose from £100 a year to over half-a-ruillion 

 sterling— that, however, was accomplished by the 

 most reckless disregard of the life of the tree 

 and such treatment had been, and was still re'- 

 ceiving, the close attention of the Government. 

 Concurrently, and following the example of the 

 Malay States, Ceylon, and many other tropical 

 regions, attention had been largely given to the 

 systematic and scientific cultivation of the 

 various kinds of rubber trees in West Africa 

 chief among which two species stood out pro- 

 minently, the Hevea from the Amazon region, 

 known to them familiarly as Para rubber' 

 and the indigenous Funtumia, of which he 

 would presently speak. Before planting seeds 

 of the Para species, a close scientific study was 

 undertaken by several experts, notably by Mr 

 Herbert Wright, who for a year or more was 

 the official adviser of this Chamber, and it was 

 discovered that the climatic conditions and the 

 soil alike were precisely those of the Amazon 

 Valley. There was therefore every reason to 

 anticipate that vvhen the many thousands of 

 Hevea Brasiliensis trees— now growing vigo- 

 rously on their properties (that was the'' 



