THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. 1, 1899, 
The shipments of chips were distributed as 
fpllows : — 
To United Kingdom 444,349 lb.; to Germany 
349,096 lb.; to United States 28,000 lb.; to Austria 
105,92@ lb.; to Italy 100,320 lb.; to Belgium 9.5,760 
lb.; to France 1,750 lb.; to Holliind — ; to Spain 
18,200 lb.; to Australia 15,120 lb.; to Turkey — ; 
to Africa 1,240 lb.; Total: 1,1.59,761 lb. 
According to these figures, Germany now oc- 
cupies the second place. Tlie bulk of the German 
imports, of which a full third comes to our firm 
alone, would appear to serve for the preparation 
of Ceylon cinnamon oil. 
CITRONELLA OIL. 
'Since our last Beport, the value of this impor- 
tant article has slowly declined by a further 10 
per cent, and has now reached the lowest point 
within our knowledge. 
The new variety of citronella oil, which we 
have recently introduced, is being distilled in 
Java exclusively for us. Its cost is almost 
twice that of Ceylon oil, but the last-named 
cannot be compared with it, and, in respect to 
strength and sweetness of aroma, it throws all 
other varieties into the shade. As a result, this 
oil has found so many buyers, that there can be 
no question of the accumulation of considerable 
stocks. 
CHINA AND JAPAN TEAS. 
EXPOET 03? TEA PROM CHINA TO UNITED KINGDOM AND 
CONTINENT. 
1899-1900. 
1898-99. 
lb. 
)b. 
Hankow and Shanghai 
... 9,544,030 
10,608,322 
Amoy 
221,484 
390,250 
Foochow 
... 13,095,083 
11,408,050 
Canton 
... 4,042,645 
3,770,406 
26,903,242 
26,177,028 
EXPORT OF TEA FROM 
CHINA TO UNITED 
STATES AND 
CANADA. 
1899-1900. 
1898-99. 
lb. 
lb. 
Shanghai 
... 1,222,849 
1,132,-577 
Amoy 
... 8.339,928 
7,253,022 
Foochow 
... 5,630,617 
5,876,852 
15,193,394 
14,262,451 
EXrOHT OF TEA 
PROM CHINA TO ODESSA. 
1899-1900. 
1898-99. 
lb. 
lb. 
Shanghai and Hankow 
... 25,363,948 
22,676,900 
EXPORT OP TEA PHOM 
JAPAN TO UNITED 
STATES AND 
CANADA. 
1899-19C0. 
1898-99. 
lb. 
lb. 
Yokohama 
... 22,212,276 
21,084,786 
Kobe 
11,782,517 
11,235,261 
33,994,798 32,320,047 
—China Overland Trade Beport, Nov. 4. 
_— ^ 
RUBBER AND PLANTING IN BRITISH 
CENTRAL AFRICA 
Mlanje, Oct. 21st. 
THE CULTIVATION OF RUBBER 
■would seem to deserve the serious attention of 
the capitalist's, for there appears to be no limit 
to the demand and increasing uses to which 
this product can be i)ut ; and in the course 
of years, not very many I should say, the 
i)resent supply must become very limited, 
have read with much interest the articles 
appearing in your Tropical AgricuUurist 
from time to time on this subject. I shall now 
venture with a few remarks on the subject 
myself. 
Central Africa, from what I know of it, 
and what I have read, does not furnish a 
vast or unlimited supply of rubber vines or 
trees. The whole country from north to south, 
and from east to \^-est, is a bush-grass field, 
as one may call it, covered with native 
grasses witli single fire-proof trees standing 
in it from 10, i'U to 30 yards apart and on 
many places thinner ; and the bulk of the 
country has no trees at all. The forests are 
few (very limited in extent) and usually 
only in gullies and strips on the sides of the 
higher ranges of mountains. Stanley's dark 
forest, of course, is an exceptionally lai'ge piece 
of the continent. 
Now the bush country contains no rubber- 
yielding vines or trees except by the sides 
of some streams whicli have a small bulk of 
trees left by natives to conserve water, so it 
is not difficult to see that the supply of 
RUBBER FROM AFRICA CANNOT LAST 
especially owing to the wasteful way in 
which it is collected. 
There are only two vines in British Central 
A^frica from which rubber is collected by 
natives, viz : — Landolphia Florida and Landol- 
phia Pertersiana, very small delicate vines, 
only to be found in forest which the bush 
fires don't run through. Traders are offering 
Is to Is 6d per lb. for this rubber and engage 
squads of men to search every nook 
and corner for it, regardless of the method 
of collecting. 
The Negi'O finds a vine or two, climbs 
the trees to which they are attached, 
cuts the vine in sections, even the 
very primary roots he cuts, and carries away 
the whole thing to the nearest ijath, or his 
camp, where he slices away at the bark 
just as he fancies, till he get a small ball 
of a few ounces (the rubber coagulates 
as fast as exposed, and is gathered at 
once) and oft he goes in search of more. 
The primary roots being cut, and the root 
bulb removed, the vine is done for, as no 
shoots ever spring from the roots left in 
the ground. Some useless and, it would ap- 
pear to me, 
UNWORKABLE RUBBER REGULATIONS 
have just been published by H. M. Commis- 
sioner for B. C. A. What is wanted is to 
restrict the collecting of rubber altogether, 
except by license under proper supervision : 
even then I question very much whether 
the Congo Free State, B. C. A., and the 
South African Co. will permit the destruction 
and ultimate extinction of the "goose that 
lays the golden egg " in their territory. 
I do not think many years are wanted 
to exhaust the rubber supply of East, 
Central, and West Africa, though West 
Coast exports have fallen off greatly 
during the past few years. We have 
several large forest trees here, which yield 
rubber, and one large vine that is not 
tapped by natives as the caoutchouc does 
not readily coagulate. 
One of those trees answers to the descrip- 
tion of Kickxia Africana, a West African rub- 
ber tree ; another I take to be Ficus Elastica. 
The yield of the latter would seem to be very 
large. I set two men to work on a large tree 
in my forest ; and in about eight hours they 
brought in over 1 lb. of rubber each in the 
