India Rubber and Gutta Percha. 79 
There appears to be no limit to the possible application 
of caoutchouc. Day by day its use extends in the in- 
dustrial arts ; and the increase and permanence of the 
supply become questions of commercial importance. The 
supply hitherto has been obtained from natural sources. 
There is no question that in some of the regions men- 
tioned above, the trees producing caoutchouc exist in 
abundance ; but this is the result of their natural develop- 
ment and increase during the ages before the value of 
their juices was discovered. Naturally, those of the 
American Continent are well fitted by nature to hold 
their own, if not to disposses others, in the ever active 
struggle for existence. The commercial demand for 
caoutchouc has however brought into existence a force 
that is inexorable, against which nature unaided has 
never yet shown itself able to contend successfully ; and 
the result, though its effect may not be at present felt 
and by the accident of discovery it may be long deferred, 
must be that the trees, in proportion to their separate 
merits, must be cultivated. Indeed, as I have mentioned, 
the first steps toward this end have already been taken. 
The enterprise might be most successfully carried on in 
this colony. Some of the trees are natives to the country, 
and, growing wild in their natural state, may be made 
productive without the expenditure of money and time 
usually incurred, as the price of experience in new cul- 
tivations. 
At first, natural plantations might be formed, requiring 
little labour and care, in the forests where Hevea spru- 
ceana or any other species is found. Where the trees 
abound plentifully, it would simply be necessary to fell 
