98 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



collect rubber on these islands as soon as the 

 waters had subsided, namely, in August, and 

 remained till January or February." It is upon 

 precisely such a basis as this that the whole of 

 the rubber production of the Amazon Valley to- 

 day rests. Nowhere does any plantation or 

 cultivation of rubber trees exist, and it is from 

 the many untapped trees in the wilds that today 

 the chief portion of the world's supply of rubber 

 is drawn. I raise this point not to reflect in 

 any way upon the validity of the claim the 

 " seringueiro" or proprietor has established to 

 work the trees of a certain district, but to em- 

 phasise the tact that the term " estate : ' and the 

 idea of settled occupation the word calls up is 

 misplaced when applied to the immense areas 

 of isolated swamp land and virgin forest where 

 for a season of each year a fevp hardy, fearless, 

 scattered immigrants, whose homes are literally 

 thousands of miles away, cut the trees they have 

 marked for tapping and collect the juice on be- 

 half of an absentee proprietor. 



The following is a further extract from Mr. 

 Consul Casement's report on the Trade of the 

 Consular District of Para for 1907. 



The rubber gathering industry and education. 

 —An aspect of rubber production that calls for 

 comment is that whore the Amazonian popula- 

 lation is engaged in this labour there public 

 instruction is almost non-existent. This does 

 not apply only to the far-off interior regions 

 whence the chief supplies of rubber are now 

 drawn and where, obviously, schools have not 

 yet been founded and must await the growth of 

 a settled population. In lu small townships in 

 the State of Para, situated in the rubber zone, 

 all of them within easy distance of the capital, 

 in a region long since settled, where the popu- 

 lation relies on rubber production for their 

 livelihood, we find that with a population esti- 

 mated at 53,539 in 1890 the number of scholars 

 who matriculated at their public schools in the 

 first quarter of 1901 was only 480, or 9 per cent, 

 approximately. Turning to 10 similar town- 

 ships in the vicinity of the capital, where there 

 is no rubber and where the population relies on 

 fishing, labouring employment, general dealing 

 or agriculture for its subsistence, we find that 

 with an estimated population of 61.031 in the 

 same year (1890) the number of children who 

 matriculated in the local schools was 3,831 for 

 the same quarter of 1901, or 6 per cent. In 

 view of such figures it may be questioned 

 whether the universal subjection of this popula- 

 tion to the spell of rubber production is alto- 

 gether good for the people or the future of their 

 country. Instruction, save in the capital, must 

 necessarily be backward, apart from the hind- 

 rance to education presented by the prevailing 

 industry in its isolating effect on the lives of the 

 people. 



A further peep is got from the statement that 

 while motor-cars are coming into use in the 

 towns of Para and Manaos, the absence of suffi- 

 cient roadway in these cities prevents any large 

 development in their import ; the only roads 

 are swampy tracks through forest, nearly all 

 travelling being by water. The enormous size of 

 trees in Brazilian forests is referred to— 50 to 60 



feet in girth and 200 feet in height as a maximum 

 — but strangely enough, notwithstanding a great 

 variety of forest timber, pine and lumber are 

 imported up to nearly 9,000 tons a year. One 

 explanation is the following : — 



A considerable amount of wood is us 

 locally for the packing of rubber for export. 

 Rubber is done up in large cases, and for this 

 purpose stout but light wood is required. I 

 understand that some of the local woods are 

 now beginning to be used, but, as a general 

 rule, the rubber cases are still made from 

 imported lumber. 



Finally, we have to consider ihow far railway 

 development between Amazonas (Brazil) and 

 Bolivia and in the recent acquisition of " Acre," 

 and trade development beyond Iquites (Peru) 

 will lead to an increase in the export of rubber, 

 Of "Acre territory" we are told that since 

 by treaty Brazil acquired its sovereignty from 

 Bolivia, signed Novovembr, 1903,— in return 

 for a payment of £2,005,000 and £147,891 to 

 the Bolivian Rubber Syndicate asifull compen- 

 sation,— the output has been as follows :— 



Metric Tons. 



1903 ... ... 201 



1904 .„ .... 1,140 



1905 ... ... 4,472 



1906 ... .... 4,046 



1907 ... ... 5,228 



In 1905 the export duty was 18 per cent. 

 ad valorem on the official value of the rubber 

 at Para, a rate that was raised for 1906 and 

 1907 to 23 per cent., at which figure it still 

 stands. Previous to 1905 the duty had been 

 one of only 15 per cent, ad valorem. 



All the above is shipped through the port of 

 Para. There is also a prospect of develop- 

 ment through a Tocantins Railway (81 miles) 

 to avoid falls on the river of that name and 

 open up a productive district. But the greatest 

 development is expected along the great 

 Madeira river (2,000 miles long) into Bolivia 

 with the help of the Madeira-Mamore railway, 

 240 miles, to avoid a whole series of cataracts, 

 rapids and waterfalls. Bolivia is shut out from 

 the world by the Andean system on the West, 

 so that goods from the Pacific cost £25 

 per ton per carriage to La Paz, whereas if 

 this railway is made from the Atlantic, the 

 cost will be under £7 per ton. Already 2,500 

 tons of rubber (beside cacao and nuts) come 

 by this road, by which half is from Bolivia 

 to the Amazon ; but the difficulties of 

 carriage through the rapids, &c, are enormous. 

 Here is the Consul's anticipation: — 



Bolivia, with an area of some 570,000 square 

 miles, contains a population of 2,000,000. The 

 States of Para and Amazonas, with an area 

 of not less than 1,200,000 square miles, or 

 more than one-third of the entire superficies 

 of Brazil, can count between them probably 

 no more than 650,000 inhabitants. Yet with 

 this scanty population and fully 200,000 of it 

 locked up in unproductive residence in the 

 cities of Para and Manaos, these two States 

 place upon the markets of the world not less 

 than ll,00u,000< per annum of rubber and 

 other products. The River Purus (Acre) alone 



