Oct. 1, 1903.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
247 
NEW PRODUCTS. 
The following is from Mr Cameron's paper 
read at the United Planters' Association Con- 
ference at Bangalore, on Aug. 5 : — 
s Mr Chairman and Gentlemen. — Three years ago I 
had the honour of reading to you a paper on iodustrial 
exotics. Since that time, cooaiderable progress haa 
been made in the aoclimatisatioa of sueh plants, 
and knowing more about them, I make no apology 
for bringing forward the anbjeot again today. The 
prevailing prices of coffee and tea are less hopeful 
than they were three years ago, and unless some un- 
expected reaction takes place in the supply from 
other countries, the oatlook, especially in the former 
prbdaot is not cheerful, Bat, fortunately for the 
Indian planter, there is an increasing demand in the 
markets of Europe and America for other products 
which he may be able to supply ; and it is concerning 
some of these that I venture, with your permission, 
to say a few words. The vegetable products for 
which there is a growing demand are Indian rubber, 
textile fibres, tans, lubricating oils and fancy woods. 
There are also numerous other products which it is 
impossible to refer to in one paper. 
KUBBER-YIELDING PLANTS. 
So pressing is the demand for good rubber at the 
present time that, while experts are exploring the 
world for further supplies, the chemists are actually 
trying to manufacture an artificial caoutchouc. If 
they should succeed in the latter attempt, rubber 
planting would I suppose, become an unprofitable 
enierprise- But it is unlikely that they will succeed 
in copying nature exactly. I should here mention that 
an artifical product claiming to possess all the 
best properties of guttapercha is now manufactured 
in Germany, and is used for insulating wires and 
cables. Then let us see, Gentlemen, how we stand 
in regard to a possible rubber industry in Southern 
India. Of several rubber-produoiug plants on trial, the 
American trees stand out prominently in the esti- 
malion of the public. These are He»ea Braziliensia 
producing Para rubber, Castilloa elastica the source 
cf Central America or Panama rubber, and Manihot 
Glaziovii, which yields Ceara rubber ; here entered 
in the order of merit as regards the quality and 
value of their respective rubbers. But the prominence 
of these trees is due to their extensive use and pro- 
ductiveness in America, where they form part of the 
arborescent flora of the country, and we have still to 
learn, to a large extent, how far they may prove re- 
munerative to the State and planter when cultivated 
as exotics in this country- 
This brings me to my own experiences of the three 
trees, and as far as their utility to Mysore is con- 
cerned, I am going to reverse the order of things 
by putting Ceara first and Para last. Within the 
past decade the Ceara tree h*s thriven amazingly, 
and has certainly come to stay in the country. 
It will flourish from the seaside to an elevation of 
at least 4,000 feet. Matured trees shed their seeds so 
abundantly that thousands of seedlings can be picked 
up wherever a few trees abound. Nor is it an unpro- 
ductive tree, as it has so long been considered in 
this country. Recent tapping experiments in the 
Lai Bagh have conclusively proved that trees 
ranging in age from 8 to 14 years are highly charged 
with latex, and that the latter flows freely when 
tapped at the correct season and in the proper 
Elace. During the dry season, when the tree ia 
jafless, the large root limbs should be tapped ; and 
after the rains the operation should be transferred 
to the trunk, which yields its milk sap freely through- 
out the cold season. These experiments have also 
proved that, as regards the productiveness of latex, 
no two trees are exactly alike. Between the two 
extremes of a copious discharge and hardly any dis- 
charge at all, we seem to possess every degree of pro- 
ductiveness. This peoaliarity does not appear to be 
da@ to eitaation, exposure, or even the ^aality of the 
31 
soil, in whole, as two trees growing together under 
the same conditions of soil, etc., were found to be 
wholly different in the amount of latex they contained 
It seems to be rather a constitutional feature that 
some trees contain more laticiferous vessels than 
others. In view of ascertaining what quantity of 
rubber a mature tree will yield without being injured, 
a specimen has been tapped twice a week for the past 
three moijths and the coagulated latex (it is not all 
pure rubber, as I shall explain later) now amounts to 
a trifle over 3 lbs. The experiment is eoing on, as 
the tree shows no signs of exhaustion either consti- 
tutionally or in the flow of latex, Early dawn is 
much the best time of the day for tapping, and the 
operation should cease about 8 a m. The quantity 
collected from each of these tappings has varied from 
half an ounce to two-and-a-quarter ounces. 
What we have to do now is to raise nurseries of 
seedlings from the good trees and try to eliminate 
the bad ones. Being so hardy during long periods of 
drought, the Ceara tree would adapt itself readily to 
many of the scrub tracts at elevations ranging from 
1,000 to 3,000 feet, with an annual rainfall of 25 to 40 
inches. We know, of course, that it grows vigorously 
at higher elevations where the rainfall is heavy. But 
there seems to be a doubt (although nothing is proved) 
if the outturn of rubber would be as plentiful and good 
under the latter conditions of growth. Personally, 
I am in favour of the maidan as the best location for a 
Ceara rubber industry on an extensive scale. This 
you will naturally think cannot be of ranch advantage 
to the planter, who is confined to the hills. But in a 
lirge concern of this kind the planter, with his 
matnred experience and larger capital, is bound to 
have a share sooner or later. It is now proved 
beyond a doubt that the Ceara tree is wholly adapted 
to the climate of Southern India. It is also been 
proved that as ifc approaches maturity some varieties 
of the tree are highly charged with latex, and I may 
here state that the dry climate of the plains is all in 
favour of a pure rubber being easily prepared from the 
latter. American imports of the rubber into the 
United Kingdom are valued at a somewhat lower 
rate than similar products of Para and Castilloa. 
But with the improved methods of purifying the 
actual rubber by the extraction of hurtful ingredients 
such as phosphates, resin, and albuminous 
matter, the best tree of the future will be 
the one producing the largest quantity of pure 
rubber or caoutchouc. The latter is suspended 
in the latex fluid in the form of minute globules 
and needs to be separated in much the same way that 
cream is separated from milk. An ideal preparation 
of pure rubber would be to drain the latex from the 
tree by means of a syphon into a kind of churn where 
the caoutchouc is separated by centrifugal force. It 
follows from this that any rubber at once depreciates 
in value when it is allowed to coagulate with all its 
impurities as it is taken from the tree. This ball of 
rubber, for instance, which was taken from a tree a 
few days ago, is full of hurtful ingredients rendering the 
whole mass subject to the growth of fungoid disease 
and putrefaction, results which are greatly aggravated 
in a damp climate, The old American remedy to pre- 
vent disease was sun-drying and smoking. But that ia 
only partially effective and does not purify the rubber, 
We now come to a brief review of Castilloa elasiica. 
which has also attained the reproductive stage in the 
Lai Bagh. In its culturable requirements this impor- 
tant tree seems to be intermediate between the Para 
and Ceara species, requiring neither the tropical 
humidity of the former nor the open and comparatively 
dry conditions of the latter. It is, in fact, a tree for 
the coffee zone, as, no doubt some of you have already 
discovered. 
Mr. C O Weber, an expert, who has recently visited 
Castilloa, a plantation on the Isthmus of Colombia, 
writes (we have given fully in T. A. :— ) 
Although I do not say postively that Castilloa 
would fail on the maidau I certaiuly think it will have 
