_ Professor Shelton once said to the writer, ‘ Your failure is really a success.” 
- Failures are not pleasant experiences. The plant Manihot Glaziovii will receiv 
a fair trial in this tropical part of Queensland, and the results will be made 
known in the usual annual reports of the Department. There is some 
disparity in the statements as to the age the tree should attain before 
it is tapped. According to Mr. R. Cross:—“ The trunk should have 
_ obtained a diameter of four or five inches—.e., when the tree is about two years 
old. The mode of collecting the rubber is as follows: After brushing away the — 
_ loose earth and stones from the roots of the tree by means of a handful of 
_ twigs, the collector lays down large leaves for the milk to drop upon. He 
_ then slices off the outer layer of the bark to the height of four or five feet. 
_ The milk, which exudes in many tortuous courses (some of it eventually falling 
on to the leaves placed to receive it), is allowed to remain on the tree for 
several days, when it is pulled off in strings, which are either rolled up into 
_ balls or put into bags in loose masses, in which form it enters into commerce 
under the name of ‘Cearascrap.’ The amount of Ceara rubber imported into 
* Great Britain in 1879 amounted to 500 ewt. The attempt which has recently 
been made to cultivate the plant in India has been attended with signal 
success. In Rio de Janiero it grows in a rocky or stony, arid region, where @ 
short undershrub is the only other vegetation, and the atmosphere is hot and 
_ dry, the temperature ranging from 82° to 90° Fahr. It is, therefore, 
suited for cultivation where the Hevea will not grow. In Ceylon it has been 
found to grow at an altitude of from 200 to 3,000 feet above the sea-level; at 
Zanzibar and Calcutta it also succeeds well. The seeds have a hard thick coat; 
take a year to germinate, unless the cornicular projection is rasped off; 
cuttings, provided they have a single bud, strike readily.” 1t would seem from 
the above that Manihot Glaziovii is peculiarly adapted for the at present 
unoccupied wasie lands of Queensland. As it has been found that the 
tree will not stand strong winds, sheltered places should be chosen for 
plantations. The attendant labour in connection with the growth and 
- manipulation is all of a light character. The clearing of the area to be 
_ planted need not be of a very pronounced kind if the plants are planted about — 
_ 10 feet apart. The larger trees of the scrub having been felled, Manihot 
_ Glaziovit. will soon assert itself and form a grove in the space of two years 
that will overshadow most, if not all, indigenous growth. The rapidity of the 
growth of this plane has been mentioned by some of the writers quoted, The 
development of the trees at Kamerunga has been quite equal to any of the’ 
author's statements. None of the trees have as yet been tapped in a 
systematic manner, but this will be done, and the results made public later. 
One thing should be borne in mind: A distrust of sensational reports regardin 
_ the culture of this or any other rubber-bearing tree. It may be, however, 
_ that rubber-growing in North Queensland will eventually become a very 
satisfactory factor in the wealth of the nation, but a proper and sure founda- 
tion must be first established. This will probably be laid by the exertions of 
this Department. Most colonists jump at anew thing if there is but the shadow 
of achance of its proving to be a correct proceeding. It seems a pity that 
some reliable record cannot be found of the trial made some years ago at 
-Mourilyan Harbour, near the Johnstone River, where a plantation was once 
started. What variety of rubber-yielding tree was planted, the writer is unable 
__ tostate: but about two years ago, when on a Government mission in that locality, — 
he saw nothing but a jungle of native trees on the site chosen for the 
_ experiment. ~- & 
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