Oct. 1, 1901.1 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
JRUBBEK IN THE PEMBA ZANZIBAR 
FORESTS. 
The chief interest in the forests centres about the 
rubber crfeper, Landophia Kiil-ii {3Ipyo). In some 
places the rubber creepers grow thickly, and in the 
Tothers large areas are without any rubber. The L. 
'KirMi as it grows in Pemba is not a large creeper, 
rarely exceeding the thickness of a man's wrist. But 
it attains considerable length in creeping along the 
ground, or in linking itself over the boughs of the 
trees. The bark is red and rough and when sliced 
off liberates a snow-white latex which almost imme- 
diately coagulates into india-rubber. The process of 
colleotion requires some skill and experience to be 
|)i'ofitably conducted. Where the vines are plentiful 
"and rich, an experienced and industrious man will 
tbjring in as much 3 lbs. a day while an unskilled 
workman will scarcely gather a quarter of a pound. 
The general mode of collection consists in slicing off 
the bark in the foim of scarfs at intervals of a fevf 
inches or a foot. When three or four scarfs have 
been made the collector dabs the wounds with salt 
water, which be carries in a calabash by his side for 
the purpose. The salt water causes the juice to coag- 
ulate as it exudes, preventing it from dripping to 
the ground and being wasted. He now leaves 
.these scarfs and proceeds to make and treat others 
on the same vine or an adjacent one, after which 
^e returns to his original group. This interval gives 
the rubber time to collect. The latex is now pure 
rubber and pulls off clean and white. With the ball 
he may have already gathered, the collector goes over 
each scarf in -succession, merely rolling it along. The 
fresh rubber clings lo the ball which grows in size, 
but does not cling to the fingers. If the collector has 
ho salt water he smears the juice at once upon his 
firm when it coagnlntes rapidly. Probably the saline 
'exudations of the skin assist the process. 
A goi d deal of waste in the collection takes place 
if the men are left to themselves. They will, for 
rinstance, only operate upon those parts of the vines 
which are within easy reach, leaving the upper regions 
among the trees untapped. Again there is always 
an " aftermath " upon the creepers, which collects 
a quarter of an hour or so after it has apparently 
been done with. The " aftermath " consists of only 
'a small quantity of rubber scarcely worth the collec- 
tor's while to return and gather, but the acoumula- 
,tions from hundreds of vines amount to a good deal 
•in a day and in time would sensibly affect the quantity 
gathered. 
■ Growing side by side with //. Kirkii is another 
creeper known to the natives as Mhungo, It exudes 
a sticky juice if tapped. The juice, however, 
will not coagulate but clings tenaciously to the 
fingers like treacle Upon the application of heat it 
is converted into a semi-solid mass like putty. — 
— Zanzibar Gazet e, Aug. 14. 
MANY RUBBER SPJICIES IN BOLIVIA " 
Sir Martin Oonway, in his latest -^ork, "In the 
Bolivian Andes," ascribed the rubber ot south-wcstern 
Bolivia — known commercially as Mollendo rubber — 
to the tree Ilevea lutea. Sir Martin having previously 
stated, in a lecture before the Society of Arts in 
London, his impression that the rubber tree of this 
region was the Bevea Brasilteiinis, some interest has 
beeii felt as to the cause of the change in his con- 
clasion. On this point he has written to us as 
follows : 
To the Editor of the India Rubber World : Hevea 
lutea is, I believe, the chief form of tJevea on the 
eastern slope of the Andes. My authority is the 
collection in the Kew herbarium, which has specimens 
of Heyea lutea from that district, but none of B. 
Brasiliinsis except from regions farther east and 
lower down. My own specimens were only leaves, 
and insufficient to determine the species. 
267 
My information is to the e£fect that rubber ia 
extracted, along the eastern elope and foothills of the 
Cordillera Keal, in Bolivia, from some twelve different 
kinds of trees. What are they ? No one knows.' 
I have just sent a properly-equipped botanist to 
spend a year investigating the matter from a purely 
scientific point of view, and I shall present a coip- 
plete set of his collected specimens to the New York 
herbarium. We shall then know something definite, 
I have received specimens of yet another kind of 
Revta from the southeast of Bolivia, but the speci- 
mens are not good enough for complete description. 
There doubtless exist heaps of kinds of rubbers in 
the Amazon basin about which we know nothing. 
Martin Conway. 
Bed House, Hornton Street, London, W., July 
3, 1901. 
The exploration work begun by Sir Martin Conway 
in Bolivia, referred to already in the India Hiibter 
World, is to be continued by a party organised and 
equipped by this gentleman, and which left London 
on June 2(5, to be absent a year. At New Year the 
party were joined by the botanist mentioned in Sir 
Martin's letter, Mr. Robert S William.i, one of the 
senior aids of the New York Botanical Garden. It 
is to this institution, by the way, that the specimens 
collected are to be sent. The New York fBotanica,! 
Garden of late has developed into an establishment 
of much importance, and its herbarium bids fair soon 
to rack with those at Kew and Berlin. There ia 
now being arranged a collection of over 3,0110 fine 
specimens obtained for the garden in Colombia, and 
which is described as one of the most important 
collections of herbarium material that ever came 
out of tropical America. The scientific directors are 
much interested in whatever pertains to a fuller 
knowledge of rubber-producing species. By the way, 
there is now at the garden a rubber plant grown 
from a seed of an undetermined species obtained 
from Colombia in the collection mentioned above. 
The rate of increase in the exports of Bolivian rubbet 
via Mollendo, on the Pacilio coast, recorded froni 
time to time in the India Rtdiher World, seems not 
to have been maintained latterly. Our last returfl 
published was for the fiscal year 1898-99-1,037,127 
pounds, of which 793,418 pounds appear to have been 
shipped in the first half of the period. There is 
now at hand a return for the calendar year 1900, 
as follows: Shipped to Liverpool, 314,162 pounds ; to 
Loudon, 22,752 ; to Hamburg, 240,033 ; to Havre 
37,816; to New York, 1751: total, 616,514 pounds. 
— India Rubber World, Aug. 1. 
ASSAM AND CEYLON COOLIES' 
WAGES COMPARED. 
On the topic of wages, Mr Cotton says in his 
report, just issued, on Labour Immigration in 
Assam ; — 
The most remarkable feature of the figures fo 
1900 is that they show a lower rate of wages 
than the average of any year since 1895. Th 
amount is considerably below the statutory so- 
called minimum wage, and when the average is 
below the minimum of K5 and 114, it follows tha,t 
in the majority of cases the minimum was not 
earned. Converted to a daily rate, the average 
wage paid to men has been a little over two 
annas and nine pies, and the average wage paid 
to women has been a little over two annas a 
day. This is a miserable average pittance, and 
leaves no room for doubt that employers have 
been endeavouring to effect economy in working 
at the ex pence of the labour force. Figures, and 
facts, when they are considered in connection 
with the annual expendituie of some 30 lakhs of 
rupees in acquiring coolies— an outlay which 
