Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-09-27

and all the more does the Belgian es-
! Enlistment deserve credit for the
work it has accomplished and to be
Initiated by other countries Within
the last two years many thousands of
rubber and other colonial plants have
been shipped to distant countries by
the Belgian camp, and with signal
success, and thanks to their practical
knowledge the selection of varieties
could be made with intelligent dis
cernment
1t may be Of interest to mention a
few OF the best rubber-producing trees.
The most generally known rubber is
doubtless the ficus elastica, the COM
mon rubber tree Of our greenhouses,
which for many years has been grown
as a house or conservatory plant This
species, with five or six others of the
same genus, furnishes the Tava or
Assam rubber of the market.
Parameria glandulifera is largely
grown in Malaysia, Cochin China and
Siam.
Wiccola escuIeata furnishes the
Burma rubber; it is a rapid-growing
vine. An experimental plantation has
yielded as high as $4,000 worth of
rubber from 10000 plants 10 years
after planting,
Wiliughbeia edulis grows in Java
and Borneo. 1t is as yet little known,
but promises good returns.
Of the African rubbers Kicksia
Africana, the Lagos rubber, has been
very successfully grown by the Eng
lish. The tree grows 60 to so feet
high and it's product has brought as
high as so and 80 cents in the English
market.
Some9 or 10 kinds Of Landolpia have
been found. All are rapid-growing
vines, growing $50 to $50 feet in
length, and their rubber is very good.
The Vaheas, native in Madagascar,
have been successfully grown also
along the west coast of Africa and are
as valuable as the last-named genus
The best American rubbers are the
Castiloa elastica, Panama rubber OF
the market 1t grows as a tree GO feet
high at an altitude of 1000 feet This
kind is very productive and recon-
mended as a shade tree for coffee and
cocoa plantations.
Haucornea speciosa, Pernambuco
rubber, or Mangubeira, as the natives
call it, grows IS to 20 feet high. It's
fruit (mangoba) is a relish for the
natives. 1t was supposed to grow in
an altitude of 1000 to 5000 feet, but
actually grows only 500 to 600 feet
above the sea level
Hevea brasilensis, Para rubber, is
the great rubber tree of Amazonia it
grows like the Hevea Guyanensis along
the rivers in very moist places.
Manihot GlasioOi, Ceara rubber pre-
fers gravelly, well-drained soil; it fur
nishes the welI-knOwn Ceara scraps
CNanisoba). The most remarkable
rubber tree of all is the Sapium Toll
mense. 1t grows on the Andes noun
tains at an altitude Of from 5000 to
5000 feet. This is an immense tree,
attaining a height of 100 feet and a
stem up to eight feet across. The
true Sapium Folimense (there has been
a great confusion about this name) is
the hardest rubber tree of all, as may
be inferred from the altitude of it's ma
tive habitat. 1t grows in a compare
lively cool climate. 1t gives the very
best Of rubber-the white virgin rub
ber-and is very rich. Experiments on
a small scale are being carried out to
acclimatize this rubber on the north
coast of Africa and in the south Of
Europe. 1t would be good move, in
deed, if the cultivation were taken in
hand by Americans in the southern
states eXperimentally and on a large
scale in some tropical country which
politically or financially is sufficiently
controlled by the United States to
guarantee the safety Of the investment.
The returns are comparatively quick
and much above those of any other
colonial product. According to careful
calculations, a plantation of 100 heC-
tares of Sapium Tolimense would at
the end Of seven or eight years attain
q produetiveness of 100000 to $4,000
pounds of rubber, and at todaFs mar
ket price would represent an enormous
income from so small an area Of
ground.