486 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTTJRIST. [Jan. 1, 1903. 
AMERICAN CAPITAL IN RUBBER 
EXPLOITATION. 
PARA RUBBER PLAXTATION COY. 
The Para Kubber Plantation Company has 
been formed for the purpose of trading in crude 
rubber on a large scale in Venezuela, on lines 
somewhat different from those any large com- 
pany previously organised. The company be- 
gins with the ownership of a tract of land 
about eight miles wide, lying on both sides of 
the Casiquiare river for its whole length of 175 
miles, comprising about 1400 square miles, of 
territory, or nearly one million acres. The Casi- 
quiare is a stream navigable at all seasons, 
connecting the Orinoco with the Kio Negero, the 
latter which empties into the Amazon a -few 
miles below the city of Manaos. The Negro is 
navigable up to the Casiquiare as also is the 
Orinoco, with the exception of about thirty 
miles obstructed by cataracts above San Fernando, 
in Venezuela. For the present the company's pro- 
perty will be reached by way of Manaos, and that 
city will be the basis of the company's operations, 
It has been suggested by that means of a narrow 
guage railway around the falls shipments could 
be made on the Orinoco more economically 
than in the other direction but such railway 
has not yet been projected. In spite ot its 
name, the new company is in no sense a rubber 
planting enterprise. 
Reports made on this territory, which have 
led to the organization of the company, are 
that it contain rubber trees in abundance of more 
than one species of Hevea, and that these trees, 
for the most part, have not been worked. The 
Casiquiare river does not overflow at any time, 
and the region is declared to be more healthful, 
for this and some other reasons, than much of 
the country that has been explored for rubber 
in the Amazon valley. The population is mainly 
of Indians, who are more docile than iu some 
other regions of Venezuela and in portions of 
Columbia where rubber workers have been attacked 
by the natives. 
"The natives of this region have developed 
some degree of civilization, cultivating crops for 
their own use, and in places have engaged in a 
small way in gathering rubber. There are also 
some Brazilian settlers who are familiar 
with working in rubber, and the company 
pruposes inducing more Brazilians, particularly 
Ceareneses experienced in working rubber to 
enter its employ. The Casiquiare district is less 
remote than some of the upper Amazon rubber 
fields to which the Cearenses go annually, 
besides which it is adapted for permanent residence, 
which is not true of districts which are over- 
flowed every year. 
It is the idea of the company that, having a 
rich and unworked rubber district of large extent, 
with many resident natives who are capable of 
being trained to work rubber, and with advantages 
attractive to Brazilian rubber workers, together 
with a large amount of capital and facilities for 
maintaining company stores, it will be able during 
the next crop season to begin operations exten- 
sively and to ship considerable rubber at a cost 
which will insure profits. One advantage that 
the company expects to have over some that have 
operated in the upper Amazon districts is that 
piracy of rubber will be practically impossible. 
The Para company will be able to so control the 
approaches to the Casiquiare that neither goods 
can be entered nor rul)ber sent out without the 
knowledge of the company's agents, and there is 
no other means of communication with the out- 
side world. The Para Rubber Plantation Com- 
pany was incorporated August lltli 1902, under 
the laws of Arizona with five million dollars 
capital, 
Venezuela is divided into thirteen states and 
two territories. The Casiquiare district lies in 
the extreme southwestern part of the republic 
and bounded on the west by Columbia and on the 
south by Biazil, The population of the territory 
is estimated ad about 46,000, of whom 12,000 
are civilized Indians. 
RUBBER FROM MOLLENDO, 
Rubber from this port on the Pacific has 
begun to reacii the New York market direct, 
being the product of Bolivia, and particularly of 
certain concessions worked by capital from the 
United States. There are now two such compa- 
nies working on a considerable scale — the Ghi- 
cago-BoUivian Rubber Co., with ita headquarteis 
in Boston, and the Andes Rubber Company, 
with the headquarters in Baltimore. During 
the past month rubber has been received at 
New York, shipped by each of the two com- 
panies named.— r/ie India Rubber World 
Nov. 1. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Rainfall for November.— The rainfall 
for November as registered at the School of 
Agriculture totalled lo-66 iu. as compared 
with 20'10, the total for the same period 
according to the Surveyor-General's return 
This shows that nearly 4| inches more rain 
fell over the Fort, than oyer Cinnamon 
Gardens about 2J miles inland, during 
November. 
Coffee Industry in Mysore.— A Conference 
of planters to consider the state of the coffee 
industry in the Mysore Province was held at 
Saklaspur and Mudgere, the particular problems 
considered being finance, labour and certain 
inconveniences which they experience in tiie 
present decadent state of the industry. By the 
desire of the planters and by command of the 
Maharajah, Mr Madhava Row, Revenue Commis- 
sioner, attended the meeting, and will report on 
the position of the industry and the best means of 
its amelioration. — Pioneer, Dec. 19. 
Another " Cure" for Snakebites.— i 
reference to the cure of scorpion stings by the ufe 
of malt vinegar, a correspoudent states that it 
very strong acetic acid is gathered from the place 
of tlie Bengal grain, which is generally and large 
ly cultivated in the black cotton soils of the 
Bellarey, Anantapur, Cuddapah, and Kistna Dis- 
tricts. The aeid is collected by means of large 
clean sheets being spread over the plants, and the 
acidulous dew formed on the plants u shaken into 
the sheet and absorbed. The sheet is moved over 
the field till sufficiently wet. It is then squeezed 
one in a vessel and bottled. This is carefully 
preserved and highly prized by the ryot as very 
medicinal, and is successfully administered in 
ases of colic, cholera, stnd all stings. It is much 
tronger then malt vinegar. It is believed that 
his acid, which is very clean, forms part or is 
wholly the mantram or holy water usually era- 
ployed by the so-called mantram-people in the 
ynre of snakebite, — Pioneer, Oct, 13, 
