76 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



June and in July-August. What is the reason 

 for this? It cannot be clue to raintall, for while 

 most rain falls in the Western Province during 

 the S.-W. monsoon, the N.- Western Province, or 

 at least the littoral, gets most rain during the 

 N.-E. monsoon. (Shall 1 hazard a guess ? (Jan it be 

 due to the rain- water of the S.-W. monsoon having 

 more Baline matter in it than the rain-water of the 

 N.-E. monsoon ? This is an interesting subject for 

 investigation. Will not the Agricultural Society 

 take the matter up and have an analysis made 

 monthly of the rainfall to determine whether 

 during the S.-W. Monsoon months there is more 

 salt in rain-water than during other months ? 



A. B. 



RUBBE R IN_ N£GOHiBO. 



SOME INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. 



The tapping of the little Para rubber garden, 

 now the property of the Coconut Oil and Desic- 

 cating Co., Ltd., planted by Mr. C. M. B. Wil- 

 kins in May, 1906, was started some 6 weeks ago, 

 when it was exactly 5 years old. Mr. Wilkins, 

 Managing Director, hopes to secure fully 1 lb. 

 per tree for the first year, which speaks very 

 Well for such a very dry climate. The little 

 garden for the first 4 years was never once 

 weeded, the only expenditure under that head- 

 ing having been the cutting of the fine crops of 

 Mauritius grass grown on the land which is wet 

 and well suited to that product, the garden 

 keeping some 30 head of mill cattle in grass all 

 the year round. As soon as the grass was cut, 

 a liberal top dressing of cattle manure and mill 

 yard sweepings was applied, and the rubber 

 plants well mulched. The roots of the rubber 

 plants were so well protected from the sun that 

 they never seemed to feel the long trying 

 droughts we had with the very poor average 

 rainfall for the district, of only 47 per annum 

 during the 5 years, against the usual 70" to 80 " 

 This little experimental garden seeirs to prove 

 that, under similar conditions, such land in the 

 lowcountry is well suited for a Dairy Farm. At 

 the end of the 4th or 5th year, when, owing to 

 the shade of the rubber trees the grass becomes 

 very thin, one would have to close the Dairy, 

 i.e., the richer milk of the tree will displace 

 that of the cows, which must be consigned to 

 another clearing for their grass supply. 



WILD RUBBER. 



THE NEW BRAZILIAN DEFENCE 

 IDEA. 



That estate rubber is bound to be the 

 controlling power in the rubber world is the 

 intention, and sure knowledge, of all who are 

 concerned in rubber cultivation. Estate 

 rubber will set the price, and the pace. Estate 

 rubber will be produced at a price which, 

 whilst still yielding a substantial return upon 

 capital invested in sound and well managed 

 concerns, will leave no room for antiquated, 

 wasteful, unduly difficult, unstable or ex- 

 pensive operations, euch as the collection of 

 wild rubber must ever be. At present fine hard 

 cured Para rules quotations through the whole 

 market, despite the attempts that have been 

 made, and with reason, to list and operate 

 wild rubber and plantation produce separately. 



This cannot last very much longer. The time 

 is coming when " wild rubber " will be practi- 

 cally beaten out of the market. There iR a 

 slight difference between the much vaunted 

 and costly " finest hard cured ; ' and the 

 eastern plantation product. This difference 

 is, however, so slight as to bo practically 

 negligible, especially considering the continued 

 improvements in machinery construction on the 

 one hand, and of rubber manufacture on the 

 other. Those who are interested in the sale 

 of the Amazon material, of course, decry the 

 plantation product, declaring that there is no 

 comparison between the two. This is natural. 

 The necessity of their trade compels them to 

 say this, though it resembles much the saying 

 of the thing that is not. The opinion hold by 

 persons engaged in industries in which rubber 

 is extensively used is somewhat different. It if 

 probable too that the private opinions of the 

 wild rubber speculators themselves do not quite 

 coincide with their public utterances. How- 

 ever this may be, it is certain that the 

 Brazilian authorities see with fair clear- 

 ness how the land really lies. What- 

 ever erroneous opinion they may hold as to 

 the comparative superiority of their own rubber 

 over that of the Eastern plantaf i jns, they labour 

 under no misapprehension as to the manner in 

 which their position is threatened by the plan- 

 tations. 



It must be said to their credit, also, that, 

 having seen their peril, they are preparing to 

 meet it, and have no intention of being swept 

 ort their feet without a struggle. Whether they 

 will succeed or not is quite another matter. The 

 general opinion of those who ponder the pro- 

 blem that faces Brazil, and examine it in all its 

 bearings, is that the wild rubber magnates, and 

 the Government of the Republic will gain com- 

 paratively little from all their efforts ; that when 

 the Eastern plantations are fully organised, and 

 come into proper working, the wild produce will 

 go down before it as a sand dyke before a flood 

 tide. Several schemes have been proposed 

 for strengthening the position of the Brazilian 

 Government, and protecting Brazilian produce. 

 There have been various valorisation efforts, 

 and market rigging has been carried out on a 

 large and scientific scale There is also a 

 great scheme for the general improvement of 

 communications, the clearing and dredging of 

 waterways, the provision of more steamers, 

 and tho building of many roads. This is the 

 most promising scheme of all. If it does not 

 help wild rubber much it will still open out 

 and improve tho country, developing things all 

 round. So far as rubber is concerned, however, 

 the benefit seems highly problematical. In the 

 first place, by tho time these roads are built, 

 and the rivers cleared and stocked with ship- 

 ping, years enough will have elapsed to per- 

 mit of Eastern rubbor estates securing the 

 fullest command of the market, reducing their 

 cost of production, and making it impossi- 

 ble for the wild rubber men to live. The 

 improvements will hardly go far towards 

 cheapening the produce of Para and Ama- 

 zonas, at least in the beginning. Road buil- 

 ding and river training are fairly expensive 

 operations. The work will have to be paid for 



