and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



211 



portant of all from the point of view of rubber, 

 and already produces a large quantity, even 

 though so far back in the hinterland. At the 

 present time, however, the burning question 

 there is food supply. In the past there has been 

 a large export of rice from the Amazonas, but 



THE COLLECTION OF RUBBER PROVED SO 

 REMUNERATIVE 



that cultivation was abandoned. The result is 

 that living has become so expensive that collec- 

 tors are unable to take their families there. 

 Mr. Sandmann states that he reported to the 

 Brazilian authorities on this matter; he read ex- 

 tracts to our representative from a letter that he 

 had received from Dr. Huber, Director of Bota- 

 nical Gardens at Para, in which the latter says 

 his Government is now taking steps to better 

 the state of affairs. The letter also mentioned 

 that the Brazilian authorities intend opening 



A PERMANENT EXHIBITION OK RUBBER AT THE 

 TOWN OP PARA. 



Mr Sandmann emphasized the fact that the 

 price of rubber there is largely dependent upon 

 the food supply, and pointed out that he had 

 already written upon this matter in the German 

 agricultural journal, Tropenpflanzer, last Sept- 

 ember. Another sign of the times is that, whereas 

 proprietors of stretches of rubber forest were 

 formerly content to live in the towns, they were 

 now proceeding to live on their property and 

 overlook the work. This was especially the case 

 along the Rio Madeira. One important result of 

 this supervision was that young trees were now 

 getting attention that they lacked before— an 

 important factor as regards future production. 



No Taxes on Enterprise. 

 Coming to the question of the procedure in- 

 volved in taking up rubber country, Mr Sand- 

 mann stated that it was a very simple matter, 

 since it was only necessary to make an applica- 

 tion to the requisite authorities and pay a small 

 sum by way of registration foe. The applicant 

 could then proceed to work, and his property 

 would cost him about £1 sterling per acre for the 

 cutting of the necessary paths in the dense 

 forest to enable his men to have access to the 

 trees to be tapped. There were no questions of 

 waiting weary months for a title, of heavy quit- 

 rent, of a lengthy interval prior to production, or 

 of a good or bad burn. There were the trees, many 

 of them magnificent ones, merely awaiting the 

 arrival of the tappers and the cutting of rough 

 approaches. Of course, since the rivers at present 

 are the only means of communication with the 

 market, it has naturally followed that selectors 

 have turned their attention to country having a 

 water frontage. Questioned as to the 



POSSIBILITY OP THE EXHAUSTION OP THE FORESTS. 



Mr Sandmann was emphatic that this cannot 

 possibly occur, as apart from the vast area 

 at present discovered, there are enormous 

 areas that have never yet been explored at 

 all, and it is only reasonable to expect that rub- 

 ber exists there in at least something approa- 

 ching the same abundance. Also it must not 

 be forgotten that big trees can be tapped there 

 for 30 years continuously — i.e. in the season — and 

 that young trees are coming on all the time. 

 There they do not tap trees under, say, 10 ins. in 



diameter. Most of those being tapped have a 

 diameter of about 2ft., but in some cases the 

 measurement reaches well over 3ft. 



While on this part of the subject, our repre- 

 sentative questioned Mr Sandmann concerning 

 the statement that so often appears in the Press 

 that the Brazilian rubber-tappers are in the 

 habit of cutting down trees to obtain the latex 

 with greater speed. The reply was that there 

 was absolutely no truth in this, as regards 

 Brazilians and Para, but Castilloa was cut 

 down because it was not so valuable. This 

 was not done, however, by Brazilians, but 

 by Peruvians, for the former found it more 

 profitable to deal only in Para. They (the Bra- 

 zilian tappers) were known as seringueros. They 

 were not very careful in their methods, but it 

 was not necessary for them to be so, since the 

 trees were of such great size. 



F.M.S. Rubber. 



Asked how the P. M.S. industry compared 

 with that in Brazil, he replied that generally 

 speaking it appeared to be about the same, but 

 that some of our trees seemed to have made 

 greater progress than those of a similar age in 

 the gardens at Para, As regarded yield, Mr 

 Sandmann considered it about the same in the 

 two countries for trees of the same age. The 

 average in Brazil was usually about 3 lb. of dry 

 rubber per tree per annum (many of the trees 

 there being very large), but in the Acre country 

 the figure rose to 10 lb. One seringuero in that 

 region obtained during one of the 4 to 6 month 

 seasons 1,000 kilos (about a ton) of rubber ! 



Questioned as to the methods in vogue here, 

 Mr. Sandmann was of opinion that we were not 

 careful enough in the matter of selection. It 

 was very necessary, he stated emphatically, to 

 choose seed not from what appeared to be the 

 best trees, but from those that yielded the most 

 and the best latex. This course had not been 

 possible, he recognised, at the outset, but seed 

 was now so abundant that the necessary selec- 

 tion could well be made. He had spoken to 

 several planters on the subject, and, as far as 

 he had been able to gather, he found that the 

 policy he advocated had not been adopted. The 

 matter was not perhaps so very pressing at the 

 present moment, but it would prove to be of 

 very great importance if the price of rubber fell 

 considerably, and especially so if that of labour 

 rose coincidently. Again, he considered that 

 our planters were not careful enough in tapping 

 to use the right kind of cups. The production 

 of clean rubber was very essential. In his 

 opinion, metal cups should not be employed, as 



THE SUBSTANCE OF WHICH THE CUP IS COMPOSED 

 GIVES ITS COLOUR TO THE LATEX. 



Iron and tin, Mr Sandmann said, give a bad 

 colour to the rubber, while copper troubles the 

 manufacturer later. He advocated the use of 

 porcelain cups for tapping, and of wooden 

 machinery afterwards in the factory. The por- 

 celain cups should be white, finely glazed inside 

 (to avoid the possibility of the latex adhering 

 to the sides), and well glazed outside, to pre- 

 vent the development of fungus which would 

 penetrate the earthenware. If this plan were 

 adopted, quite another quality of rubber 

 would result. 



