196 



CAOUTCHOUC TREE OF ASSAM. 



extent to which it is procurable, when from the mere outskirts of 

 the forest, 300 maunds of juice may be collected in one month. 



On the excellence of the Assam product as compared with that 

 of America, it does not become me to pronounce. If strength, elasti- 

 city, clearness, and perfect freedom from viscidity, be tests of excel- 

 lence, then this product may be considered as equal to any other. 

 It has been pronounced by persons in Calcutta to be excellent, but 

 no details have been entered into except by Mr. Bell, who objects to its 

 snapping : if by this we are to understand snapping on being pulled too 

 much, in contradistinction to breaking, it only proves its excellence. 

 It is declared to be inferior to the American by Mr. McCosh, evidently 

 on examination of the worst possible specimens. 



The size of the trees as they generally occur in the limits above 

 alluded to, entirely precludes all idea of any great liability to 

 be destroyed by the extraction of juice, the amount of which must 

 be so minute, compared to that of the whole tree. Still it may 

 be considered desirable for the security of the tree to limit the 

 bleedings to the cold months, and this is rendered more necessary by 

 the inferiority of the juice during the season of active vegetation. 

 And if it be possible to limit the number of bleedings of each tree to 

 four or five during the above period, I consider that the present 3,000 

 stock cannot fail to be kept up. But to venture on still larger supplies, 

 to meet the demand for this most useful article, a demand to which 

 limits can scarcely be assigned, the formation of plantations should 

 be encouraged, the sites chosen to be near the villages bordering 

 on the line of the natural distribution of the tree. Propagation by 

 cuttings or layers cannot fail to be of easy and rapid application ; 

 and if we consider that the tree is the most valuable receptacle of 

 the lac insect, there is every reason to suppose that the natives will 

 readily enter into such views. 



The jungle in which the tree occurs is of the usual heavy descrip- 

 tion, presenting in fact no one feature in particular. The trees are 

 all of a tropical nature, except towards the foot of the hills, when two 

 species of chesnut and one of alder begin to shew themselves. 



