176 
IHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept. 1, 1897. 
from being over-tapped, their wholesale destruction 
will follow ; but obvious difficulties are in the waj' 
of any satisfactory check in this direction, more 
especially as but little rubber is found within the 
British jurisdiction. I do not think, however, that 
the trees are destroyed to anything like the extent 
which is generally supposed. The tree is known 
as the Kickxia africana.” 
EXPORTS. 
It has been previously stated that the total exports 
for 189,5 amounted in value to t'98.5,595, and it will 
be interesting to see how large a proportion of this 
sum is ditributed amongst the three main staples of 
export trade of Lagos. The details are asfollows 
Palm Kernels . . . . £320,434 
Palm Oil 205,553 
Rubber 269,892 
Total 
795,879 
When it is stated that out of the difierenoS 
between the two totals no less a sum than 
£100,789 represents specie, exported mainly to 
West African ports, it will be 'understood how com- 
paratively unimportant are the other local products. 
The bulk of the palm kernels is absorbed by Ger- 
many, the figures being 
Germany 
Great Britain 
The distribution of 
Great Britain 
Germany . . 
France 
and of rubber 
Great Britain 
Germany 
Cape Coast.. 
Accra. . 
£227,556 
92,877 
palm oil is as follows ; — 
£155,344 
48,528 
1,680 
£166,343 
79,999 
17,471 
6.077 
From this it will be seen that Lagos helps to swell 
the export of this commodity from the Gold Coast. 
It would appear that the process of drying the rubber 
is understood better in that Colony, and probably 
its improved condition pays for the double handling. 
DR. D. MORRIS, c.m e. ; Not long ago we had the 
pleasure of hearing a Paper from Sir George Baden- 
Powell on West Africa as a whole. Now we have 
been favoured with an account of one of the most 
important Colonies in that part of the world. The 
Governors present have been specially connected 
with the wonderful development of West Africa. 
Takiu" only the rubber industry. Sir Alfred Molo- 
ney has told us how in the Gold Coast Colony in 
1882 hardly any rubber was exported, and yet through 
his individual interest in the matter it is now ex- 
porting rubber to the value of £200,000. Sir Alfred 
mentioned £100,000, but the exact figures were £218,162 
in 1893. It was important that capable and pro- 
gressive men should be sent out to administer our 
Colonies, because they have it in their power to do 
more for their Colony than anyone else. Develop- 
ment is much more rapid when a Governor takes a 
real interest in the affairs of his Colony. In the 
case, of Lagos its development has been most re- 
markable. For instance, the rubber industry in three 
years has risen from practically nothing to something 
like ,£300,000. Everyone who uses rubber in any 
way should feel grateful to Sir Alfred Moloney and 
Sir Gilbert Carter. In regard to the question of 
the future supply of rubber, companies are being 
floated, and a large number of people are saying, 
“ If you plant anything, plant rubber.” If, in a 
few years or so, rubber of the value of half a mil- 
lion could be raised in two little spots in Africa, 
I think the people who are advocating planting 
rubber all over ttie world should look mere closely 
into the matter. We know that in Brazil the 
Amazon Valley and both sides of the Andes are 
largely devoted to the rubber industry. In Central 
America, Mexico, and other parts of the world rubber 
is likewise being produced as a forest product in 
large quantities. During the last twenty years the 
price, according to reliable statistics, has risen only 
a few pence pet pound. Before we start planting 
rubber in our own Colonies, and especially on land 
which can produce o her things more valnable. we 
should be satisfied that the rubber industry is not 
rkely to follow the cinchona industry, which has 
caused so much loss to planters in the West Indies, 
India, and Cevlon. The tree which has been the 
means of yielding so much rubber in Lagos extends 
probably right across from Sierra Leone to the 
mouth of the Niger. The tree is not unlikely to be 
found in extensive tracts in the interior of West 
Africa. It is needless to say that it should be most 
cai'efully preserved in all the British Colonies where 
it is found, because it is not fit to tap until it is 
of some size, and it cannot again be tapped for 
some time. No doubt many trees are Died too 
severely, and killed. There is, however, a great 
difficulty in regulating the tapping of these trees 
and preventing their destruction ; hut there can be 
no doubt that everything should be done by the 
authorities to preserve them. 
THE PROMISE OF CHEAPER RUBBER. 
(“ India Rubber World " June 10th.) 
Bolivia’s government has become very much alive 
to the possibility of greatly increasing the pub- 
lic revenue, and pi'omoting public improvements 
and private enterprise, through the development 
of her rubber resources, and this is being attempt- 
ed in many ways, including the admission of 
alien rubber-collectors on the same terms as citi- 
zens, which has not been permitted hitherto. 
There are yet many difficulties to overcome, but 
the example of the recent growth of Par£ 
and Manttos, based upon the rubber trade 
alone, has not been lost upon the Bolivians. 
An important steamer line has opened a new direct 
service to Iquitos, implying confidence in a largely 
increased trade with eastern Peru and the upper 
waters of the Amazon, the basis of which can only 
be rubber. Transportation facilities must exist before 
rubber-gathering can be developed, even in the richest 
districts. With sparse populations, indisposed to in- 
dustry of every kind, the inducements to gather 
rubber must be definite. There must be frequent 
trips by steamers, trading stations with goods tempt- 
ingly displayed, and collectors financially able to 
bring camps of laborers from a distance to supple- 
ment the work of the natives. Rubber comes to 
market from a new district in driblets — a few pounds 
here at d a few pounds there — and a large production 
is a matter of long growth. But this growth has been 
in progress so long in the region beyond Iquitos that 
more substantial returns are now to be looked for. 
The work of actively exploring for rubber in Bra- 
zilian forests which have not yet been attacked is 
likewise proceeding, and renewed interest is being 
manifested in the rubber resources of Colombia, 
Venezuela, and the Guianas, not to mention the rub- 
ber-planting projects in Mexico and Central America. 
In Africa only the completion of the Congo rail- 
way is needed to give a great impetus to a rubber 
trade which already has assumed large proportions 
and made of Antwerp an important rubber mart. 
With the natural obstructions to navigation removed, 
no doubt the government will be pressed to amend 
the present restrictive regulations, with the effect of 
opening the rubber trade to all comers and largely 
increasing the output from the forests which stretch 
from the mouth of the Congo to the headwaters of 
the Nile. Then the probability of the abundance of 
the Kichxia africana — the tree which yields the 
rubber of Lagos — all the way down to the Congo 
gives promise of sources of rubber unsuspected until 
lately. Finally, in Asia, recent investigations have 
impressed the authorities of British Burma with the 
great extent of rubber forests in that country. The 
trade in rubber there has been in the hands of 
Chinese merchants who have tried to conceal the ex- 
tent of the supplies, but while they have insisted that 
the trees were disappearing, the yearly exports from 
Rangoon have increased. Now that the truth is 
beginning to be suspected, the Chinese traders are 
likely to find competitors in the field. 
