THE TKOPICaL AGRlOULTURiST. 
[Siipr. 1, 1900. 
EXPORTS FROM PULIIiTO PEREZ (VIA MOLLENDO; 
SINCE 1893. 
-1893 .. 13,031 kilos 1893 ... 133,865 kilos 
1891 ... 37,991 do 1897 ... 180,689 do 
1893 .. 63,518 do 1898 .. 256,514 do 
January-Juue, 1899 ... 113,501 kilos. 
—India Rubber World, August Isfc. 
■ <* ■ 
CACAO CULTIVATION FOR INDIA. 
To the Right Honourable the Secretary of State 
for India, Whiteliall, dated Grass Mount, Forest 
Hill, S.E., 4th May, 19W9. 
- " My Lord, I have the honour to submit for your 
Lordships consideration the following remarks 
relative to the practicability of cultivaltng Cacao 
(Theobroma Cacao) in India under conditions pe- 
culiarly favourable for adoption in that country. 
Thus I venture to submit this proposal in view of 
the desire ot the Government of India' to develop 
the agricultural industries of that country, Your 
Lordship having recently stated in the House of 
Connuoiis (rida the Times, Apcil 4th) tiiat the Gov- 
ernment would do everything they could to try 
to vary and diversify the occupations of the Indian 
people." . 
From a report of mine on the Agricultural pro- 
ducts of Tolima, Colombia, issued as a Parliament- 
ary paper by the Foreign OIHce, (1895) No. 370, I 
extract the following relative to this cultivation : 
— " lu the South of Tolima, it is interesting to 
note, this cultivation is pursued on a considerable 
scale with g.eat success, under the influence of 
irrigation. The region in question is character- 
ised by proloiiged droughts, and the application 
of irrigation has thus proved most advantageous. 
Cacao thus produced has become quite an im- 
portant industry. Planters in British Colonies will 
fes glad to learn that the plant is amenable to 
s.ystematic irrigation, a condition that assures the 
extensive cultivation of the plant in compara- 
tively dry regions, for excessively liumid condi- 
tions of climate have been deemed indispensably 
requisite for the plant." Some plantations in 
Tolima are not irrigated, but tiiose that are irriga- 
ted, far 3urpass in productiveness tiian the others. 
The cacao planters of Tolima, who grow for and 
transport to Bogota and surrounding country 
thousands of mule loads of this article annually, 
have been forceti by circumstances to adopt irriga- 
tion in conseciuence of the greatly reduced rain- 
fall experienced during many j^ears owing to the 
wholesale destruction of tlie forest in the district 
for the wide extension of pastoral husbandry. In 
this connection I again quote from my aforesaid 
Keport : — " The thousands of square miles of 
natural pasturage on the plains and lower hills 
of Tolima assume duringtherainy season the mossy 
beautiful verdure. But in tlie alternate season of 
drought the general aspect is that of a desert." 
Besides being well acquainted with this culture 
in Tolima 1 have traversed hundreds of square 
miles of forest in another province of Colombia 
far distant from I'olima, througliout which Ifound 
-cacao growing wild. In Colombia, under culti- 
vation cacao flourishes from the hottest plains up 
to 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, hence its 
! adaptability to a considerable range of latitude— 
i.e., the great zone within the 25tli parallels of lati- 
tude -this in the New World. Doubtless in the Old 
- World the range would be somewhat raore limited. 
Plantations of cacao, in countries wherein it is 
•largely cult! vated in the ordinary way, are estab- 
lishe<r under tlie sliade of lofty trees whicli are 
planted in orler to atibrdtlio re(|Uisite shade to 
Mcreen the plantations from the scorching rays 
iof the sun. 
. Cacao cultivation un ler the alternative method 
heroin propounded, that is the irrigation motliod, 
iti liX'M bouelicially inilueuocd by this necessary 
condition of .shade, inasmach as a eonside able 
amount of moisture by evaporation from the 
humid earth is diffused amidst the trees conse- 
quent upon the double umbiagious canopy of 
folia.gc o\'er the land. Large plantations arc thus 
benefitted nioie tbaii small ones. Thick belts of 
for.'st trees surrounding the plantations contri- 
bute to the desired condition of humidity, as well 
as protecting f he cacao plants from the injurious 
effects of strong prevailiiig winds. 
A coiumunicatlou read to the Agricultural and 
Horticultural Society of India in 1883 states : 
'• There is another product to which attention 
might be dii-ected with advantage, namely cacao. 
All attenipls to raise the Tkr.ohroiiKi Caciio in 
Beng-d a.ppear to have failed : the tree att.-iiiis 
a certain age and then dies. But there are other 
parts of India where the climate might be found 
suitable to its production." 
It may not be amiss to add in this conii -xion, 
by way of indiciiting the facility with whicii cacao 
plants are int oduced to other countries that I 
introduced i!i 1073, under instructions from the 
frovernoi-cif .Jaiu iii/ i. Sir .John Peter Grant, all the 
best Tririida:! \ :irieties, having visited that island 
for the par|)Os(' io Jamaica, where they have 
flourished, an ! 'A lirre their cultivation is now 
carried on on a largo scale. I also introduced to 
Colombia some of t hese varieties l)otli from Trini- 
dad and Jamaica, and this too very successfully. 
Furthermore, duriuu; recent years, cacao has be- 
come an important product of Ceylon. — I have, 
etc., ^Sigd.) Robert Tuomson. 
A NEW METHOD OP EXTR.\CriNa 
KUBBEli. 
(oPliCULT.V THiNsLVTKD FOR "iNDIiN GABDHKINO. ') 
In the issue of the liavue dcs Culture-^ Colo doles, 
dated 5th Fehru.iry, to haad by Ijst mail, "he editor 
writes : — "A new way of extracting caoutchouc destined 
t') triinsform the methods of gathering, of cultiva- 
tion and prepatraVion, has been freqaenDly talked of in 
the press of late. vVe have a iked Jl. Go Jsfroy-Lebeuf, 
the well known colonial hortic-ultQi-ist, who is a,sso- 
oiated with that di-icovei-y, to be kin lenongh to explain 
its origin and consequences. The following is the letter 
which he has addressed to us upon the subj-ct : — • 
To Monsieur Mdhe-Pou:iugon, E.iitor ot th'i Revae 
(h'i Cultures Coloaiiles. — Tmu have asked nie for in- 
formation on the extraction of caoutcliouc from bark. 
You have an absolute rigVit to do so, for it is, thanks to 
you, that I have been able to obtnia, through the inter- 
vention of ?tf. Le Uesue, the tirsc elements of our 
researches. I say "our" for as soon as I was in po.ss- 
e5sion of samples, I communicated them to all who 
interested tbem.selves in the question. At first I anti- 
cipated that the solution ot the problem would ba 
effected by the employment of chemical processes, and 
naturally I engaged my searchers in foUowuig that 
vie?/. We were far from suspecting that the method 
of extrtotion was very mach more simple than we had 
foreseen. By means of the distribution of samples a 
8 irap of bark fell, by the help of M. Wehry, into the 
hands of M. A. and V.. ot the Museum. While 
these gentlemen were triturating the mass they found 
that the pounding eliminated easily a great proportion 
of impurities ; they pushed their researches deeper, ob- 
tained ahttle mass of gum mixed with bark, ascertained 
that the gum gathered itself together, and that the 
particles of caoutchouc agglomerated they continued 
the mechanical action and obtained at last caoutchouc 
sensibly more fit for use than the average of the gums 
which we receive from Africa. 
"These gentleman wished to associate u^? in their 
discovery, and it is thus that the Arnaud Godefroy- 
Lebeuf, Verneuil and Whery patents were taken out. 
"Our process is remarkable in the sense that it per- 
mits the extraction of cautchouc from the smallest 
3craj)3 of wood, twigs and bark \yhich contain it. 
