114 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[Aug. 1, 1901. 
_ — 
To the Editor. 
PLANTING IN NYASSALAND : B. C. 
AFKICA. 
FRIGHTENED AGAINST PLANTING TEA : CHILLIES 
TO THE FRONT. 
M'lanje, May 9. 
Dear Sir, — The prices Ceylon tea is now fptch- 
ing frightens one from extendin;^ much here on 
that product. Over-)iroduction and low prices 
usually, in time, find a lemedy. Low coffee 
prices" and short crops in B. C. Africa are causing 
a great funk, and planners are poing in for 
tobacco and chillies at a p;reat rate. I hear of 
thousands of acres being put under the latter 
product. 
Chillies may be over done, but tobacco won't 
I am sure. I am getting Is per pound, for all 
I can produce, in the South African market. 
I cannot go in extensively for this product for 
want of a steady supply of labour. We have 
now got established a Labour Bureau whieii is 
doing good work, I have had thii ty men sent down 
during the last month. Tliere is labour gaUre 
in this country, but owing to the interference 
of Government Officials, and the unscrupulous 
recruiting by native kapatus belonging to Trans- 
port Companies and planters, the people are 
afraid to leave their homes. H. B 
p, — So the Nyassa'and Company is likely to 
close down, and I hear Lachnagar E-*tate is aban- 
doned. It bad bad ireatment indeed.— H. B. 
INTERESTING INFORMATION FROM 
PARIS IN RESPECT OP GUTTA 
PERCHA AND RUBBER. 
Paris, May SSth. 
Dear Sir, — You will receive by this mail a 
Utile sample of Gutta Perclia : submit it to any 
expert and he will report—' Gutta Percha fine 
quality.' And yet, 1 can certify that neither 
Dichopsis, Palaquium, Isonandra, Payena, nor 
any other plant yielding Gutta Percha has any 
thing to do with this sample. 
This little sample is perhaps the solution of an 
urgent problem, the certitude of the supply of this 
substance for the future. All the Gutta Percha 
yielders from the "Insulande," * are localised, 
and the crop will be quickly exhausted. Their 
product is slowly obtained ; the trees require four 
years and more and give 1 or 2 lb of marketable 
gum. The extraction from the leaves has proved 
till now a failure, and has not b^-en accepterl by 
the manufacturer of electric cables ; extraction 
from the bai k is on trial and I cannot say any- 
thing abouD it yet. 
But chemists have recognised the presence of 
gutta perclia in a number of plants growing in all 
parts of the tropical woild. All the Mimtisops 
contain Gutta ; aw\ 31 Balata and M Globosa are 
reported to yield 60 to 70 percent of pure Gutta 
in the gun). M Schimpen of Abyssinia and 
very inobably the species from Asia, contains a 
limited quanity of the product. 1 know tiiat other 
* S'j>. What does our correspondent exactly mean 
by this ?— E». T.A. 
Sapotaceous plants and a few Ev/phorbiaceous 
are in thesaine case. Thesample I send you has 
been oblaim d from Balata, Mimusops Balala- 
I do not know the process, but 1 knew it i.sa 
veiy simple and economical one. Une kilo of 
Balata gives TuO grammes of Gutta As tiie 
sample is valued at 7 francs per kilo, one^ can 
obtain 700 grammes of a substance easily sold at 
14 francs for 700 grammes or 20 fis. per kilo. 
Tbe chemist say- that, all expen'^es paid, the 
kilo conies out at 12 to 12^ francs the kilo. 
Tnis sample is sold heie at a much higher price, 
for 30 francs have been paid in every case, so you 
can judge of the commeicial value of the sub- 
stance. 
But just now I write with another point in 
view. I write only to planters, and I say all the 
gutta-yieldei s actually known are trees, slow- 
growing, requiriiiti a special soil and climiite, and 
very few will try the culture of tue e trets out 
of tin; regions where nature has sown Dichopsis, 
Isonandra, dc. 
But amongst the numerous species containing 
cntta, mixed with other substances, many are 
easy to propagate and to grow in veiy varied 
conditions of temperature, soil, and moisture. 
So it will be of enoimous interest to know 
what percentage of Gutta all these plants 
contain, and to see beforehand if the cul- 
ture can be remunerative. Till now the process 
has been a secret, but 1 believe it will not be 
so for long. But never mind, if this gutta-yie der 
becomes the subject of a gi eat enterprise, Balata 
gum will jump high, so the urower will be in- 
terested in trying some other gutta-yielders. 
Balata {Mimusops Balata) is a tree more easily 
grown than Isonandra or others from the same 
region, and otlier .«orts of Mimusops are largely 
spread over the world. 
Any chemist wi I give you the percentage of 
true gutta the trees contain; do not take any 
notice if the chemist says it will be too expen- 
sive to isolate the gutta. My inventor says that 
his process allows him to make a profit from the 
gums containing only 10 percent, of true gutta. 
But we will speak of that again some day or other. 
I received a few days ago two plants ,n a very 
bad state from the centre of the Orenoque region. 
One of these plants h.is begun to show k few leaves 
and I was very ashamed when J identified it with 
the numerous varieties of Sapium Biylandtilo- 
sum The travellers reported Big tiee, yiebling 
a large quantity of the rubber exported under the 
name of Para rubber. * 
I know that Para rubber is not the product of 
Hevea alone, and an Englishman sent ine a 
few years ago a sample of rubber made frorn 
Micratidra. But Sapium from the hot countries 
has always been reported to yield Fiubber of very 
inferior qua'ity. Strange to say, I have had in 
my hands plants collected by one of my collectors, 
M Guillot, from English Guiana, known by such 
an authority as Mr Jeiima>in as a bad yielder; 
others from Colunibiaj giving the virgin Caucho 
known as a very fine sort: others fiom Ecuador, 
just at the limit where the Castillua is met : all 
these sorts aie exactly the same in general ap- 
pearance. But the area where Capiuiii eives 
good rubber is )mm"nse, nearly as large as its 
competitors, Hevea or Castilloa. 
I have not been able ti I now to identify that 
new Rublier yielder from San Luiz Potosi, Mexico. 
I know that the plant is a very common one in 
all the dry countries of the Mexican region, but I 
