# 
29 
Two varieties of rubber plant are found in the Acre territory, the 
caoutchou which has to be cut down in order to extract the sap^ and 
the Hevea which is merely tapped. In some cases the trees are 
tapped during a period of two years and are them rested for a similar 
period. Other rubber trees are tapped for six years at a time and 
then left untouched for a like time. The trees selected for tapping in 
the Acre are usually from 30 to 40 years of age and are expected to 
yield for 20 years after which they become useless. (C. Gosling, 
Consular report, Bolivia, 1910). 
Surninam. 
Here, as elsewhere, the cultivation of rubber continues to excite 
a good deal of attention. There are, it is estimated, some 17,000 
trees growing, besides a large number of young plants yet to be put 
out. Some 800,000 seeds are expected from Ceylon at the end of the 
present year (1910) in addition there are a certain number of trees 
in the Colony which are now yielding seed, A species of the Hevea 
{Hevea Guianensis) is indigenous to the Colony. The percentage 
of rubber yielded by the variety is less and the quality very inferior 
to that obtained from Hevea Braziliensis. (Consular Report, for 1909.) 
Fiji. 
The cultivation of rubber in the Fiji Islands appears from the 
Agricultural report of 1909, to be effected under some difficulties not 
shared in by other parts of the world, namely from hurricanes and 
scale insects. Para rubber suffered much from the hurricane during 
which at one place nearly half were broken down, but none were up- ' 
rooted ; in other parts of the Colony, however, the damage was con- 
fined to the loss of the leaves. The broken trees were trimmed and 
tarred and they recommenced sprouting. 
The growth of the tree does not seem to be quite up to our mark 
for good growth here. The average for 60 plants is given as at one 
year old 4.0 inches girth at 3 feet ; 5.75 inches at 2 years old, 9.2 at 
3 years old. Plants planted at Lantoka in 1907 are only (1909) five feet 
tall. The Superintendent of Agriculture considers the plant un- 
suitable for +he dry parts of the island. 
In cultivation cowpease are planted in the spaces between the 
trees and weeds chiefly Mikania scandens allowed to grow which 
covers the ground with a thick mat of vegetation and has to be pre- 
vented from climbing over the trees. 
Castilloa and Ceara rubber have suffered from scale. 
1 he rainfall in the islands seems^to be about the average for Para 
rubber cultivation ; 98.27 in some parts to 130.43, which is high, and 
in Lantoka only 60.86, which probably accounts for the low rate of 
growth there referred to above. 
