282 
RUBBER IN MYSORE. 
The following is taken from Mr. Cameron’s lecture to the Plan- 
ters association of Southern India. 
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 unprofiiable enterprise. But it is 'unlikely 
that they \\ ill succeed to copy nature exactly. 1 should here men' 
tion that an artificial product claiming to possess all the best pro- 
perties of gutta-percha is now manufactured in Germany, and is 
used for insulating wires and cables. Then let us see how we stand 
in regard to a possible rubber industry in Southern India. Of 
several rubber-producing plants on trial, the American trees stand 
out prominently in the estimation of the public. These are Hevea 
braziliensis, producing Para-rubber, CaMilloa dastica, the source 
of Central American or Panama rubber, and Manihot gtaziovii . 
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 in due to their extensive use and pro- 
ductiveness in America, where they form part of the aborescent 
flora of the country, and we have still to learn, to a Jaro-e extent 
how far they may prove remunerative to the State and planter when 
cultivated as exotics in this country. 
This brings me to my own experience of the three trees, and as 
far as their utility to Mysore is concerned. 1 am going to reverse 
the order of things by putting Ceara first and Para last. Within 
the first decade the Ceara tree has thriven amazingly, and lias cer- 
tainly come to stay in the country, ft will flourish from the sea- 
side to an elevation of at least 4,000 feet. Matured trees shed their 
leaves so abundantly that thousands of seedlings can be picked up 
wherever a few trees abound. Nor is it an unproductive 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 r 4 years are highly charged with latex, 
and that the latter flows freely when tapped at the correct season 
and in the proper place. During .he dry season, when th ; tree is 
leafless, 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 throughout 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 copi- 
ous discharge and hardly any discharge at all. we seem to possess 
every degree of pro luctiveness. This peculiarity does not appear 
to be due to situation, exposure, or even the quality of the 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 lateciferous vessels than others. In view 
