299 
of a belt of 450 trees. These trees in the last few years have 
been tapped, but since tapping commenced 250 of them have died 
as the result of the tapping. It is considered unsafe at the present 
time to take more than 250 pounds of dry rubber per year from 
these 200 trees. Three coolies work on the trees from September 
to the end of March. The largest tree is 49 inches in circumfer- 
ence, 3 feet from the ground and the tapping system is a series 
of "Vs" draining into a vertical cut. 
A weak solution of ammonia (270 to 5%) is used to prevent 
coagulation caused by water in the collecting cups, or from 
coagulation by churning while being carried from the trees to the 
coagulating rooms. 
This plantation gets 4s. and 2d. a pound for their Ceara when 
Islands Fine (wild) Para brings 3s. and 4d., but 10 pounds of the 
latter equals 8 pounds of cultivated on account of its having a 
smaller percentage of moisture, so that prices are really equal. 
It gets a little better price than plantation Para. 
At present they are tapping over renewed bark without finding 
it necessary to remove any outer bark. The manager here thinks 
that if the same methods of tapping were used and the trees 
tapped first when young, that it would not be necessary to remove 
the outer bark as it would not have time to get too thick. They 
tap the trees every third day for 7 months, except in rainy 
weather, cutting a shaving a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch in 
thickness. The cut is shallow not reaching the cambian, but a 
pricker is used to augment the flow. As the trees are old trees, 
the outer bark that was removed was quite thick. 
In conclusion I beg to submit the following general facts, con- 
clusions and opinions concerning the rubber industry which I 
gathered during and in connection with my trip, which I hope 
may be of value to those interested in rubber production in 
Hawaii : 
The present rubber production of the world is approximately 
seventy thousand tons. 
The great source of rubber is the forests of Brazil, which pro- 
duced 41,000 tons in 1907. 
The cultivation of rubber is now going on in nearly all the 
tropical countries of the world, it being most largely engaged in 
in Mexico, Central America, India, the Malay Peninsula, Ceylon 
and Java. 
It is difficult to ascertain the exact area under cultivation, which 
is large, but the adaptability of different localities to rubber pro- 
duction has yet to be determined. It is certain that a very large 
proportion of the areas planted are unfitted for rubber cultiva- 
tion or the wrong varieties of rubber trees have been planted. 
There is little danger of the rubber market being overstocked for 
some years to come from either wild or cultivated sources. 
