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laborers only, men who know nothing about rubber cultivation, 
and who have nobody to instruct them, perform all the work 
appertaining to the upkeep of such plantations, comprising some 
50,000 plants. Of course they have but few weeds to contend 
with — an important consideration — as they are in general sup- 
pressed by the peculiar soil and climatic conditions. I therefore 
could not help coming to the conclusion, that if these improvised 
plantations were placed under my control, I should replant them 
throughout. Anyhow, it is important to be able to add that I 
found two notable exceptions to this crude style of planting, one 
of which is concerned with a few thousand plants, and the other 
50,000, on both of which intelligent methods of planting had been 
adopted. These two plantations, from a practical point of view, 
were decidedly encouraging. The seeds and huge cuttings or 
stumps had been planted only four months. The seedlings in this 
time attained a height of from 4 to 5 feet, and they were exceed- 
ingly healthy and vigorous. The huge cuttings are procured from 
the forest, that is to say, saplings in the forest are cut down and 
stuck into the cleared ground to form roots and permanent plants. 
These stumps measure from 6 to 8 feet in length, with both ends 
cut off, and in four months the vigorous shoots that spring from 
the top are 4 and 5 feet in length ; thus there is a continuity of 
growth from the sapling to the established tree. 
This plant is an invaluable acquisition to rubber cultivators. It 
can be cultivated at a minimum cost, consequent on its persistent 
tenacity and vigor, as is exemplified in its native soil, and because 
of its other merits, to which I have drawn attention. Further, it 
may be stated that the product of this tree is comparable with par- 
ticular products cultivated in the tropics and elsewhere — products 
that flourish in a great measure by the restricted cultivation given. 
That is to say, when we discover a region pre-eminently adapted 
for a given culture, there it yields not only the best produce of its 
kind, but also far more economically. 
Again, the humble dimensions of the Manicoba tree, I am con- 
vinced, are a factor in its favor, from a cultural point of view, 
for it attains a size exactly suited for close planting. In the great 
Hevea plantations under cultivation in the East, close planting is 
systematically resorted to, with the object of forcing early crops, 
which are available from young trees of limited size ; for numbers 
' collectively far more than compensate for the production of rubber 
per acre from full grown trees widely planted. As a matter of 
fact, big trees are stated in the East to be an encumbrance. 
The number of trees usually planted in the East runs from 
100 to 200 per acre, sometimes more. The number of Manicoba 
trees I advocate to be planted on one acre is 1,200. I estimate 
that 1,200 trees per acre (exclusive of certain returns in the fourth 
year) will yield 600 lbs. of rubber in the fifth year, and at least 
the same quantity annually thereafter for a long period of years. 
