JA^^. 1, 1903.] THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 455 
CRUDE RUBBER. 
Angola. — The most important African Colony be- 
longing to Portagal, and the one in which the lai'ge t 
fortunes have been made within the last thirty years' 
is Angola. The Colony of Angola oompries 517,000 
square miles, and has a sea line of 870 miles. The 
climate, if tropical along the coast, has proved 
healthy enough for Europeans nearly everywhere in 
the interior. I speak from practical experience. 
There is no soil on the surface of the globe more 
fertile than that of Angola, and only a few yeara ago 
this colony was practically the second largest pro- 
ducer of rubber in the world, la 1899 it exported 
rubber, in the face of grave difficulties, to the value 
of 4,500.001) dels, besides large quantities of coffee and 
other products. The climate, topography, and soil 
of Angola would reader comparatively easy the culti- 
vation on a very large scale, of such crops as tobacco, 
coffee, rubber, and certain cereals. Native libour 
is ridiculously cheap, and, when intelligently directed, 
is most excellent, A man who for twelve years was 
at the head of a mercantile house, which at the time 
did the largest business with the African Colonies 
of Portugal, writes as follows : — 
" The question of labour about which yon ask, is 
not difficult to solve. The nergoea are good workmen 
and the Portuguese colonists are hard-working, sensible 
men. The great product of these colonies for the 
present moment is rubber. There ace apparently 
inexhaustible supplies of it. You ask me, then, if this 
is so, why Portuguese Africa has not prospered like 
the Congo country, which is administered by the 
Belgian Government. I will tell you. The whole 
difficulty is one of administration. The rubber in the 
Portuguese Colonies is brought down from the i-emota 
interior districts by bearers, who have sometimes a 
journey of two months to the coast to exchange their 
produce for money or goods. 
" As soon as one gets into the interior, there is an 
absence of roads and a great paucity of Government 
military stations or trading posts. The country is 
slightly policed. The consequence is that the negro 
bearer wtio carries his rubber has a long, dangerous 
difficult journey, and is robbed of a portion of his stock 
from time to time Notwithstanding all 
these grave difficulties and disadvantage? of a practical 
nature, the trade in the Portuguese Colonies thrived 
enormously until the Congo State appeared. Then 
system, order, and far-seemg patience began to tell, 
as they always do. With admirable foresight, the 
Government of the Congo State developed a vaat 
network of trading stations in the interior of its 
territory, and built flat launches to bring the produce 
to the tide water via the water ways and riveri of 
the country. This sort of navigation costs very little. 
In short, the Congo Government brought the market 
close to producer; and as a consequence of this system 
and organisation, it is able to underbid in the 
rubber trade the very country where rubber most 
abounds. The rubber is purchased on the spot, and 
the native is spared the danger and toil of a long 
journey to the coast. 
" In this connection it should be observed that both 
the Congo and Angola only export rubber produced 
by wild-growing plants, and though the field is etill 
an enormous one, and may be exploited in the present 
mauuar for thirty or forty yenrs longer, the ulti- 
mate system will be to cultiva te the rubber plant 
systematically. Already, a good beginning in the way, 
of setting out rubber plantations has been made in 
the Congo, but 1 think nothing of this sort has 
been done in Angola. 
" With the highly-organised and scientific methods 
of the Congo State, the Portnguese merchants and 
dealers have found themselves unable to cope profit- 
ably. The negroes refuse to come toJihe co'ist with 
rubber; they prefer to sell on the spot, as it wore, 
in the Congo. 
' The rubber trade in Angola could readily be 
revived by proper combination and management. The 
various existing interests would have to be con- 
solidated in some well-working way, and this would 
be a comparatively easy matter." 
The mnin difficulties which foreign investors in the 
African Colonies of Portugal are likely to encounter 
will arise from the variety of constructions put npon 
the law governing the creation and management of 
corporations formed for the purpose of transacting 
business in the Colonial possessions of that Kingdom. 
This law is not at present thought to be wholly 
favourable to the investment of foreign capital iu the 
Colonies. — Iiulia-Ruhhcr and GlUta-Fercha, Trades' 
Journal, Nov. 10. 
THE TRADE IN COTTON SEED, 
A few months ago we drew attention to 
the growin.s: development of the Indian 
trade in Cotton seed with Enrope, As food 
for cattle, the seed had long been popidar 
in India ; and both Sinhalese and Tamil 
cattle-owners here believe in it for its 
nutritious qualities, and specially as in 
creasing the yield of milch cows. The 
popularity of cotton seed is greatly en- 
hanced by the fondness of cattle for it. 
Draught cattle, which have toiled all the 
week and have been fed with poonac- 
water, often poured down their throats 
with a bamboo, and not unfrequently of 
an age which makes itself felt to the olfac- 
tories, are allowed by some owners a feed 
of cotton seed on Sundays ; and the rush 
they make to the weekly dainty is a sight 
to be seen. But it is tiie export trade in 
the article and its growing appreciation in 
Europe, which is now attracting special 
attention. The European importer, as we 
said when we last touched on the subject, 
is more concerned witii the potentialities 
of cotton seed, as food for man, rather 
than for cattle ; and as we are ourselves 
pressing for cotton cultivation in the 
JSorthevn Districts of the Island, as one 
means of rescuing the Northern Railway 
from persistent financial failure, the in- 
formation which is to hand in an Indian 
paper is of special interest. 
Mr. Sly, the Director of Agriculture in the 
Central Provinces of India, is reported to 
be working hard to restore the .agriculturists 
of that sorely tried region to a condition 
of normal prosperity, and at the same time 
to promote its economic welfare. One of 
the means which he has adopted, and with 
which we have become familiar since the 
■appointment of our own energetic Director 
to the Botanic G.ardens, is the issue of 
" bulletins,"' brimful of information, valu- 
able to the .agriculturist and the statisti- 
cian. The latest bulletin deals with the 
prospects of the cotton seed industry in the 
Central Provinces— the exports liaving risen 
from 46.000 cwt. in 1896 to 22.5,000 in 1000, 
and to 2,036.000 cwt. last year. It is not 
the le.ist satisfactory feature of this increase 
that practically the whole quantity Wiia 
shipped to the United Kingdom, which had pre 
viously long drawn its supplies from Egypt 
To what extent it is still supplied from tha 
source we are not told, but America use 
up all its own seed, and has none to spar 
for export. That is probably one of th 
causes of the plieuomeual demand— another 
