Blue-grass blade., 1892-09-03
THE INDIA.RUBBER TREE.
Old Methods of Handling 1t in Sonth
American Forests,

America 1of the nulk or ITS supply
South America, especially Brazil. is the
territory upon which the commercial
world relies, and when the statement
is made that there is great danger of
the diminution of the supply of crude
rubber from the Amazon valley it
awakens thought.
Figuratively, the rubber trees of the
Amazon are gold mines which require
no shafts, no machinery, no costly cx-
pcriments, no guess-worl. and practic-
ally no risk nor labor The only thing
to be guarded against is the killing of
the geese which lay the golden eggs.
All that has to be done to accumulate
riches from the rubber trees is to hire
the willing natives to enter the junglcs,
tap the tree and let the liquid gold run
into our Golfers. In the great rush for
becoming suddenly rich, however, in the
lower Amazon field-the delta-many
rubber forests have already become ex-
hausted. While the coming Brazilian
congress intends to discuss the qucs,
tion of preserving the forests, no such
precautions have as yet been taken at
all
If but three gashes per day are made
in the rubber tree. and the hatchet in
the careless hands of the native does
not penetrate or strike the wood, the
tree does not appear to suffer from the
treatment, except that the trunk grows
thick and the Scared surface becomes
irregular and bumpy. 1t will continue,
however, in good health and yield milk
in abundance for thirty or forty years.
If the blow from the hatchct, however,
wounds in the slightest degree the wood
of the tree it dies. Decay begins at this
wound. As the wood is soft a little
weevil called punilna enters the de-
| cayed spot, as a worm docs the body.
and hastens the destruction. The tree
may drag ont miserable half
dead existence, but, as they say
in Portuguese, it is ''cancado." 1t
will be seen how very easily the
| destruction of even almost zine xhausti-
BILE" forests may be completed by a
mere blow of a hatchct in the hands of
| a marauding native. For this reason
many of the once ''inexhaustiblc' rub
Der swamps of the lower Amazon are
already wholly or partially abandoned,
| and the same fierce onslaughts are be-
ing made upon the virgin swamps of
the upper tributaries. Renters of
| swamps are naturally less careful of
| the trees than are the owners, who
manage the property from a central
station. But the principal forests are
| ''owncd" in Para or Manaos by those
| dealers who are infested only in the
present supply. and who have no inter-
est in the future production.
This carelcssness with regard to the
| future can be offset with cultivation
elsewhere, if begun at once, and those
| who have investigated the matter be-
| licve that the everglades of Florida Of
| fer the best inducements for expert
mental culture. The conditions of
moisture, heat and soil there are Just
about on par with the condition
where the rubber tree flourishes. and
as for fully-remunerative re-
turns there is no question. 1t is simply
a matter of time. Many years elapSe
before the rubber tree produces sutfi-
cient milk to justify its planting, but
after it does begin to do SO the profit is
sufficient to pay for much greater de-
| lay. 1t is true, however, that Brazil is
1.-THE land of Tomorrow" and if any.
thing is done Anglo-SaXon energy must
do it.
The rubber tree Of the Amazon val
ley grows spontaneously: a man can
gather enough of the nuts in a day to
plant a quarter-section of land; they
germinatc easily and grow rapidly; 535
trees will do well to each acre; the land
needs no preparation, and no culti-
vation or care is necessary. Taking the
most unfavorable figures of the rubber
swamp and applying them to the rub.
Der grove, the man who cares for 15C
trees in the swamp could care for an
acre with it's 53S trees. AS four kilos
is an average yield from the $50 trees
his 53S would yield him fifteen kilos pei
day. One dollar per kilo is an averag &C
price, and so the laborer could make sl5
per day, with no outlay but ordinary
living expenses, during four or five
months in the year.
In 1865 Senor Joapuan Antonio da
Silva, now deceased, but then living or
the river Guiana, twelve miles above
the city of Para, had 10000 young rub
Der trees planted on the low alluvial
island in the river, called Bonn Intento
which formed part of his estate. He
paid to Francisco Rahia, the man who
did the work, the sum of l6 cents
apiece for the young trees when plant
ed. The 20,00O young trees thus cost
him a total outlay of $1,000. Unfor
tunately the trees were all planted
near the margin OF the island on it.
whole circumference. as only a small
part of the island was to be planted
and it was less trouble to plant near
the shore than to work his way through
the jungle further inland. The It'd,
GIBBS and flows with tremendous power
and tears away and builds up the islant
at one or the other end, alternat
ing by periods of ten years Conse
quently only about 1000 of the origina
1000 trees remain. These, however
are in excellent condition, and yielt
abundantly, though they have never
cost a cent for care or cultivation.
| Since an acre of rubber-yiclding tree.
will yield between 800 and 500 pei
month, the $4,000 trees mentioned, oc
cupying forty-acre tract, would mcar
an income of $40, per month for foul
or five months of every year. Will,
twenty or twenty-five years is quit,
awhile toawait for the returns to bcgiI
to come in, yet the receipts are SO grca
and the expense of such an enterpris,
so little that northern capital and en-
ergy will probably at no distant da,
solve the problem of preserving rubbc
forests in the characteristic Anglo
Saxon way-N. o. Times Democrat.
A Fish With Electrical Power.
NJ. D'Arsonval has been studying tn,
possesses a specimen capable of emit
ting current, or rather a discharge, %
100 volts and two ampcres, which cal
be made to magnetic an clcctro-mag
net. The electrical apparatus is under
} meath the animal, the positive tcrmina
its tail. In striking its prey it fold
itself into the are of a circle and com
pletes an electric circuit through tn
body of the doomed animal. Tn
gymnotus is found in some Of the Soutl
American rivers, and is ordinarily fiy
or six feet in length, although occasion
al specimens are found very mucl
larger Engineering Magazine.
Preparing for Career.
, Uncle Henry Well, Wesley, | hop'