Gums, Renins, 



134 



[March 1907. 



Exports. 



Owing to the wanton destruction of the trees in the vicinity of the coast, the 

 production of India rubber fell off very considerably whilst prices were low, as it 

 did not pay to penetrate far into the distant woods to extract it : but with the 

 increase in price and enormous demand of late years this has become possible and 

 profitable and a gradual development of the trade can be noted. Moreover, as the 

 trees are not now so frequently cut down but are bled so as to produce the finer and 

 more valuable grade of "Andullo" or "sausage" rubber; we have good reason for 

 believing that the actual rate of production can be easily maintained and will be 

 even largely increased when the plantations begin to produce. The yearly exports 

 from 1897 to 1905 have been as follows : 



1897 ... ... 504,994 kilos | 1902 ... 394,809 kilos 



1898 ... ... 722,128 „ | 1903 ... 494,804 „ 



1899 ... ... 655,374 „ | 1904 ... 519,5(56 „ 



1900 ... ... 501,596 „ | 1905 ... ••• 586,566 „ 



1901 ... ... 322,374 „ | 



It may be safely calculated that over ninety-five per cent, of thi s export up 

 to the present is of wild rubbei and only five per cent of cultivated rubber. Nearly 

 the whole of the rubber exported goes to the United States. 



Other Trees Giving Rubber. 



Attention is being given at present to a search for other gum producing trees. 

 A rather less elastic, but still valuable gum is gathered here called " caucho blanca," 

 produced in "andullo" or sausage grade; also a kind of gutta perch a was atone 

 time extracted from a tree named " mata-palo"* — an enormous liana which climbing 

 originally round the trunk of any other forest tree as a support, eventually kills 

 the sustaining tree and forms an immense trunk of very great height. I am endea- 

 vouring to obtain details and samples of this gum. It is not now produced but 

 could (if found to be a profitable business) be produced in considei'abl quantities. 



There are also many small shrubs of the Apocynum and Brosium genera 

 which give a milky juice coagulating into a gum with the qualities of India rubber ; 

 but some mechanical process would be necessary to extract this from Apocynacea^ 

 as the extraction by natural means would be tedious and unprofitable. Some samples 

 of the ordinary strip and sausage rubber, and also of the " white rubber " duly 

 marked and numbered accompany this report as well as various samples of other 

 grades of rubber. 



(Sgd.) ALFRED CARTWRIGHT. 



Guayaquil, Dec. 3rd, 1906- 



RUBBER INDUSTRY IN MADAGASCAR. 



Britsh Consulate, Antanarivo, 31st July, 1906. 

 His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State 

 for Foreign Affairs. 

 My Lord,— In reply to your Lordship's Circular No. 13423 of April 28th, 

 I have the honour to report that no systematic effort has yet been made in Mada- 

 gascar to cultivate rubber, all the rubber hitherto exported from this country 

 having been collected and prepared by natives. The few isolated attempts at 

 cultivation made by individual planters from time to time, have proved entirely 

 unsuccessful, and a similar absence of results attended an experimental plantation 

 which was commenced in 1901 by the Department of Agriculture. These experi- 

 ments were chiefly made with cuttings from an imported plant known as " Manihot 

 Glasiovii" (referred to in enclosure No. 6) which it was hoped would yield a quality 



• Undoubtedly a species of Fieus, 



