DISAPPEARANCE OF RUBBER PRODUCING PLANTS.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9305, 4 January 1896, Page 7

DISAPPEARANCE OF RUBBER PRODUCING PLANTS.

M. Dybrowski, Professor of Colonial Agriculture at the Institut Agronomique, Farii, has called the attention of the French Government to the rapid disappearance of ciontcbouc forests in ull the equatorial tegiona of tho globe, and warns, not only France, but all other countries having tropical possessions, that unless some preventive steps are taken at once, the timo is close at hand when all of the various indiu-rubber-producing plants will have disappeared from their native haunts. "Already," he says, "in India the spontaneous production has diminished iv an nlarmiog manner. Already, too, iv all forests of tho more roadily reached portions of Africa, the rubber - prodncing lianas have absolutely disappeared. They have been ruthlessly dettroyeii in ali the coast regions, and day by day the destroyers (the gum-gatherers) mu»t penetrato deeper and deeper into the primeval tropical forests to obtain tho world's supply. When one thinks of the importance of the role played by iudiarobber in the arts and industries, and of its almost indispemabihty in electrical science, the cause for alarm becomes very manifest." M. Dybrowski urges France and England to leud all possiblo encouragement aud aid to the culture of rubber-producing plauts. Experiments, instituted in the Congo region, in the cultivation of a shrub, the caoutchouticr of Ceara, have given brilliant and gratifying results, and it is urged that they be extended.— National Druggist.