1 Nov., 1897.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 375 
to Assam and Aracan. The Government of India issued directions in May, 
1884, that for five years from that date the Assam plantations should be 
increased by 200 acres ayear. The Government also desired that, in order to 
test the financial results of the cultivation of this rubber, fifty mature trees 
should be experimentally topped annually. In the reports of subsequent years, 
the results of these experiments are fully given. The amount of rubber 
obtained showed singular irregularity year by year. It varied so greatly that, 
while the yield in one year was as much as 26 lb. per tree, it would fall in 
another year to a little over 2 Ib. The value in money depended, of course, 
on the market, but, at an average price of 1s. 6d. per lb., the extreme yield 
per tree varied from 39s. to 36s. The fluctuations of yield of one and the 
same tree in different years are, therefore, very considerable, and they remain, 
up to the present, inexplicable, since the officers, under whose personal 
supervision these experiments were made, have not been able to find out 
any reasons for, or causes of, these very material fluctuations. There is 
another point of practical importance. It is well*known that Ficus elastica 
will grow with undiminished rapidity and luxuriance in situations remote from 
the hills, but in such localities it fails to yield caoutchouc. Hence, Mr. 
Mann concludes, that no greater mistake could be made than to start plan- 
tations of this tree in the plains of Bengal. This is true, also, of many 
parts of the world where the tree has been introduced. In spite of the 
abundance of the tree under cultivation in the tropics of both the Old and 
New World, it has nowhere proved valuable for the production of rubber, 
except in the mountainous parts of Assam. The Conservator of Forests says : 
“Tt requires an exceedingly damp atmosphere to do well, and therefore thrives 
best at the foot of the mountains.” 
As compared with the market values of India-rubber for November, 1895, 
quoted in Part IT. of these articles, we have the following, obtained from the 
same source, for July, 1897 :— 
rp Che te 4 
Para, fine SRO MELOMES MESS 
Negro Head . 2) Oa Ba 
Columbian, good to fine on WIM . BY 
Niggers ar 135 Sy a SelaeS 
Mozambique, good to fine... Oi) . BD 
Assam and Rangoon Of » B Pp 
Borneo ace LietOue es Glne9 
Penang, Java, &e. ... rer Ik Os BD 
Madagascar, good to fine ... LE LORS ceed 
Showing that prices have hardened, but not in such an extravagant manner 
as sometimes quoted. | l'o obtain caoutchoue advantageously from plantations, 
has so far proved a failure. The many experimenters in other countries have 
found their followers here (German East Africa). In Togo, the Dalmeida 
Brothers last year planted 1,500 Ceara rubber-trees for shading their coffee 
plants. The Kempe Plantation Company contemplate making a caoutchouc 
plantation in the vicinity of Togo. Experiments with these plants as shade 
trees in Cameroon (Victoria) had to be abandoned, as they were damaging the 
coffee-trees. The Para caoutchouc-tree is now being experimented with. In 
German Hast Africa, Perrot planted on the Mkulumunzi Plantation, owned by 
the West German Trading and Plantation Company, 10,000 Ceara caoutchouc- 
trees, and the St. Paul Plantation owners have put out 30,000 caoutchoue- 
plants. From other sources the exports of India-rubber from German East 
Africa are found to have been for 1894 as follow :-— 
To Lb. Rupees. 
Germany ... re rome LOOSUL ou 181,905 
Great Britain... PelZOU0 $9 25,766 
Zanzibar... .... ...,_ 389,665 Sry 475,589 
