206 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Sept. 1, 1899. 
THE "CAUCHO" RUBBER OF PERU. 
A despatch received at the Foreign Office from 
H. M. Consul at Para states that the tree which 
produces the quality of india-rubber exported from 
Peru througli Para under the name of caucho, lias 
recently been determined by M. Huber, a botanist, 
who is on the scientific staff of the Museum of 
Para. M. Huber lately visited the IJcayli region in 
Peru, and discovered' that the tree was a casfilloa, 
and he will shortly be able to decide by compari- 
son whether it is the same as the castilloa elasf ica 
of Central America, or a variety of the same genus. 
It has been surmised previously that the tree 
might be a castilloa, but it is said that M. Huber 
is the first authority who has settled the point. 
With this knowledge it results that the distribu- 
tion of the castilloa is wider than was previously 
thought to be the case. Caucho is also produced 
in the neighbourhood of the Bolivian tributaries 
of the River Amazon, and from parts near the 
said tributaries that pass through Brazilian terri- 
tory. A sample of caucho exists in the Para Mu- 
seum that came from the banks of the River 
Tocantins. It is said that caucho is also produced 
near Macapo and Mazagao, on the north bank of 
the river Amazon, near its estuary. A recent 
statistical return on the exports of the State of Para 
shows that this produce was exported in small 
quantities (altogether about 10 tons) from Aveiros 
(River Tapajos), dantarem, Alemquer and Obidos, 
on the River Amazon. 
The total shipments of ccmc/io from Amazonian 
ports amount to about 2,000 tons annually. M. 
Huber describes the process of tapping of fol- 
lows:— The trunk is almost severed in two at 
a distance of about 3 ft. from the ground, and 
the tree is allowed to fall in such a manner 
that is supported in the inclined position by its 
branches, and still holds on to the part that remains 
standing. The Sap is collected and poured into 
a hole made in the ground, and is coagulated 
by means of the juice of certain local lianas. 
The natives state that this is the best method 
of tapping, and if the trees were treated in the 
same manner as the heveas they would soon be 
destroyed by inserts which would attack them 
where the back would be injured by incision. 
This may be only an excuse for unnecessary des- 
truction, whicli might be avoided. However, it 
must be considered that as these trees gi-ow far 
apart from each other in their native state it 
must be inconvenient, if not impossible, to attend 
to more than one tree at a time. Trees that 
have been tapped in the manner described do 
not survive the operation. In the course of time 
their places are no doubt taken by young trees 
that grow from seeds. The Amazonian castilloas 
are found on elevated land which is beyond the 
reach of floods, whereas the heveas thrive best 
in the lowland that are periodically inundated 
by the River Amazon. Sir W. T. Thi'stleton Dyer, 
Director of Kew Gardens, in a communication 
to the Foreign Office, states that caucho, of 
which caoutchouc is probably an expanded form, 
has been hitherto indentifled with "India-Rubber" 
par excellence, the produce of one or more 
species of hevea indigenous to the basin of the 
Amazons and exported from Para ; it would now 
however, appear that the caucho tree of Peru 
is a castilloa. One or more species of this genus 
produces the india-rubber of Central America. In 
South America the castilloa has been known to 
extend as far as Ecuador, where it is called jebe 
otherwise jeve or heve. According to Aublet, 
this latter name was given in Northern Ecuador 
to a species of hcvea und in founding that genus 
he derived its name accordingly. In the Amazon 
basin the name forthe species of hevea is "Seringa," 
and in Central America for those of castilloa 
"Ule" or "Tunu" (see Kew Bulletin, 1898, pp. 
141, 142). Perhaps in Western South America 
the names caucho and jebe are applied indis- 
criminately to rubber-producing trees. According 
to a report by Mr. D. B. Adamson, H.M. Consul 
at Iquitos, dated 24th December, 1898, and pub- 
lished in the "Transactions" of the Liverpool 
Geographical Society for the same year, Peru 
has two kinds of rubber-producing trees— cawc/i-o, 
which appears to belong to castilloa, and jebe 
or hevea. Both Mr. Adamson and Mr. Churchill 
also state that the rubber is extracted from the 
caucho tree by felling. The Jf&e is alwaj^s tapped. 
Ihe former process results in a district being 
" Avorked out." In consequence, according to Mr. 
Adamson, "many of the 'caucheros' (or rubber 
collectors) are working in Brazilian rivers, where 
the supply is yet more plentifuL" It is not, how- 
ever, necessary to fell the castilloa trees to coUect 
the TuYjher.— India-Rubber and G-utfa-Percha 
Trades Journal, July 10. 
ANGLO CEYLON AND GENERAL ESTATES 
COMPANY, LIMITED. 
The ordinary g-eneral meetrng of the Anglo-Cey- 
lon and f>eneral Estates Company, Limited, was 
held on Tuesday, July 18, at the offices of the com- 
pany, 20, Eastclieap, London, C.C., Mr. Alex. W 
Criclitori presiding. 
The Secretary (Mr. Henry Grey) having read 
the notice convening the meeting, 
The Chairman said : 1 am sorry to have to take 
the ciiair at this meeting on aecount of the ab- 
sence ot your chairman, Mr. Quin tin Hogg, and I 
particularly re;.'ret that this should be the case 
on tliis occasion, because I understand that some 
of you, at all events, have come here in the ex- 
pectation, and v. itli the desire, of hearing from him 
personally some account of his tour in the East, 
and of the opinions and estimates which he formed 
tliere with regard to the affairs of tlie company. 
He i", however, unfortunately notable to be pre- 
sent, and I am sure that you will be sorry when 
you hear that family bereavement is the reason of 
his non-attendance, and why his presence is abso- 
lutely necessary elsewhere. As regards ourselves, 
this alteration came upon us quite suddenly, 
and I have no time for the preparation of 
any statement to lay before the meeting, and, 
consequently, if in the course of what I am 
about to say I omit anything, or fail to make 
anything clear, I hope that yoa will, by questions, 
elicit from me that which you want to know. 
With regard to Ceylon, we state in our report, and 
I think that you must have had an opportunity 
of satisfying yourselves repeatedly of the truth of 
that statement from the number of reports of 
Ceylon tea companies which have been issued in 
the course of the last two or three months, that 
the j'ear under consideration has been a remark- 
ably unfavourable one. Prolonged drought, cold 
winds, and low temperatures prevented the usual 
flushing of the tea bushes, and from an estimate 
which we had of the 1,720,000 lb of tea we only 
got at the end of the season 1,540,000 lb. This 
constituted, therefore, a loss of nearly 200,000 lb 
of our crop. Nor was this the only mishap ; for 
the same causes affected the cocoa crop, which 
in our case is an important one, and instead of 
2,100 cwt. which we received the previous year, 
we were only ahle to harvest 274 cwt. This, of 
course, is an extraordinary diminution, and shows 
a loss on the working of the cocoa estates. These 
again, weie not the only unfortunate circum- 
stances. In the first part of tlie year the rice 
for the coolies had still to be bought at a very 
high rate, antl freights during a great part of 
the time were also high. On the othsr hand, 
there was one point of consolation, and 
