by postal parcels was necessarily greater with those countries than with the United States or Great Britain. Spain and Turkey bought of France in 1902 $1,100,000 and $1,200,000 of silk, respectively, which are about the figures of several previous years. On the other hand, a number of small countries whose total purchases aggregated but $4,600,000 in 1901 increased to $8,600,000 in 1902. While France exported more silks than any other nation, her imports aggregated $14,324,200 in 1902, against $14,321,600 in 1901 and $12,420,000 in 1900. Asiatic silk tissues, which constitute the raw material, are represented by 1,156, 100 pounds, valued at $5,990, 800, in 1902, against 1,216,820 pounds, valued at $6,305,800, in 1901. In The European countries which furnish France with silk tissues, passementeries, and ribbons are Switzerland and Germany. 1902 the first of these countries exported to France $3,901,600 of this merchandise and the second $2,242,400. England was third in rank, with $1,707,000. Italy and Austria-Hungary are estimated to have sent about $178,600 and $40, 800, respectively. Other countries. are put down in block for $6,271,800, the total of foreign importations being $14,324,200. Ten years ago the importations of manufactured silk into France hardly reached $10, 200. The purchases from abroad and the sales abroad have progressed in parallel lines. The minimum rate of exportations at present is placed at $61,714,800. Ten years ago the average was $44,884, 200. Switzerland, the principal exporter of silks and ribbons, last year sent to France 6,404, 200 pounds, valued at $28,763,000, the highest amount recorded at the customs offices of importations from that country. In 1885 the silk importations from Switzerland were $19,831,400 and in 1901 they had jumped to $27,504,000. Most of this came from Zurich; the ribbons came from Basel. LYONS, FRANCE, August 31, 1903. JOHN C. COVERT, Consul. RUBBER FORESTS OF BRAZIL. (From United States Consul Kenneday, Para, Brazil.) The month of August, 1903, shows nearly the lowest export of rubber for any August during the past seven years, the same period in 1897 being the only one which falls below the figures for last month. Buyers and exporters here are not, however, allowing themselves to become discouraged over the bad showing of August, though they admit their disappointment. They point out that in nearly all previous years the deficit in August exports has been more than made up by the large gains in later months, and a steady annual increase has always been shown. The one feature of the situation which is really worrying the rubber men is the rapid destruction of the rubber forests in the very region where the best rubber is found. The number of men who have gone into the rubber belts this year passes all records and all expectations, and they are still going in great numbers. These men have heard of the high prices rubber is now commanding. They are eager for gain, and many of them, as well as the owners of estates, are anxious to retrieve the losses of last season. It is therefore to be expected that the destruction of the rubber forests this year will be beyond all precedent-enormous and irreparable. Advices from an exploring expedition headed by Mr. William Gerdeau confirm the reports of the destruction of rubber forests here during the past year. Captain Gerdeau, who is an expert of fourteen years' practical experience, has been exploring, investigating, and canvassing the territory of the upper Amazon and its tributaries in the richest rubber belt in South America for more than a year, advises me that the rubber gatherers are cutting down the forests with amazing rapidity and improvidence, far beyond. what his previous information had led him to expect. He expresses grave doubts if the supply can be kept up unless stringent measures to protect the rubber forests be immediately taken. In this connection I herewith transmit a report just handed to me by Mr. Robert B. Ewart, recently arrived from Lima, Peru, which completely confirms Captain Gerdeau's report as to the destruction of the rubber forests. Both Captain Gerdeau and Mr. Ewart report that in the regions they have visited there are really inexhaustible supplies of hard woods and dyewoods of the most valuable varieties-rosewood, mahogany, lignum-vitæ, walnut, cedar, and many others being common and exceedingly abundant throughout all this region and only awaiting the hand of the pioneer and the enterprise of the trader to be turned into gold. PARA, BRAZIL, September 9, 1903. K. K. KENNEDAY, Consul, A TRIP ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA. Mr. Robert Blair Ewart to Consul Kenneday. In response to your request I take pleasure in giving you the following brief memorandum of my trip across South America: I am a volunteer member of the Field and Stream Syndicate Expedition, of which Mr. Alvah D. James is the leader and Mr. Gustav Henschen is my associate member. We sailed from New York for Callao, via Colon, on April 27, 1903, and arrived in Para August 31, thus making a record trip despite the hardships and misfortunes we encountered. The itinerary of our trip was as follows: Callao to Lima; thence by way of the wonderful Royal Railway to Aroya, 137 miles; from Aroya by mule trail and pack train to Puerto Jupusu, on the Rio Supusu; at the latter place we took canoes to Puerto Bermudas, whence we traveled to Port Victoria. Our entire journey, I might add, from Puerto Jupusu to Para was made by water down the Amazon Valley. Port Victoria is situated at the junction of the Rio Pichi and Rio Palcazar, these two rivers thus forming the Rio Pachitea. It is along this river that the terrible Cashaibas Indians live. Down the Pachitea to the Ucayali, and by this stream to Iquitos, we made our way, meeting with many mishaps, as these rivers are obstructed by falls, rapids, sand bars, snags, etc., rendering travel all but impossible. Traveling by land in these regions is out of the question, even to the Indians themselves. The Ucayali is a magnificent stream, as large as the Mississippi, and traverses one of the finest rubber districts in South America. But through all this region the country, from a distance of 2 miles inland from the various streams, is wholly unexplored and completely unknown, even to the natives themselves. In all this great territory there is but one man who is producing "borracha," or fine rubber. All the rest are "caucho hunters." These latter are the bane of the country, and have done incalculable damage in the past few years. They do not bleed the trees in the regular way, but cut them down and extract the gum by the wholesale. Thus every year enormous forests of rubber are destroyed, and each year the supply grows less and less and the rubber gatherers are compelled to go farther back from the rivers. This makes the production of rubber more difficult, dangerous, and expensive each year, and it is only a question of time when this immense and most important rubber-producing territory will be entirely stripped of its rubber forests. I found that caucho is selling on these far upper rivers for 20 to 22 soles ($10 to $11) per arroba of 32 pounds. All this region of the upper Amazon and its tributaries offers magnificent facilities for cattle ranching. When the higher lands are reached there are vast stretches of prairies, or "savannas," as they are called, with a climate like spring all the year, where cattle enough to supply a continent can be raised, practically without expense. Throughout all the thousands of miles of territory I traversed, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, I found, on both sides of the Andes and all along the route, that nothing but Collins (American) knives or machetes were used by the people. They will not have anything else, and the sale of them, like their use, is beyond computation. I also learn that all the great enterprises in Peru are managed by Americans. ROBERT BLAIR EWART. PARA, BRAZIL, September 7, 1903. RUBBER IN THE FRENCH COLONIES. (Translated in the Bureau of Statistics from La Quinzaine of September 10, 1903.) An industrial school for the exploitation of caoutchouc was established in the Sudan in 1902. The funds necessary for its opera tion were supplied by the colony in order to teach natives the best methods of culture, how to increase and preserve the trees, and at the same time teach them the best methods of proceeding with the gathering and coagulation of the juice. The school has been attended since the beginning by more than 150 pupils. These students, arranged into groups, have gone into the various parts of the rubber districts, particularly where the trees yield an abundance of juice. The system of education is practical in the extreme and is within the grasp of the most primitive intelligence. It gives a simple, scientific knowledge of the rubber plant, the best means to secure its preservation, explanations of the best methods of making incisions in the bark, instructions about the coagulation of the juice, and the making of it into balls of rubber. In a report of June 28, 1903, the permanent governmental delegate in the colony confirms the good results obtained by the school. The merchants find useful auxiliaries among the natives, who have become very apt in the exploitation of the plants and in the avoidance of their destruction. While this school has spread its practical and useful knowledge, instructions were also given to the different overseers of the district with a view of impressing upon the people the fact that the exploitation of the caoutchouc is a source of very considerable revenue. The attention of the Government was not limited to these initiatory methods of exploitation, but has been attracted to the abuses which have grown up in the rubber trade; notably to the dishonest practice of certain natives in augmenting the weight of their collections of crude rubber by the introduction. of foreign materials. This, if not prevented, could easily injure the future of the rubber trade in the markets of Europe. Restrictive measures have been imposed. As early as February, 1902, the lieutenant-governor of Guinea published a decree forbidding the exportation of adulterated rubber. This measure of watchfulness, at the very source of the colonial trade, has had the good result of securing for Guinea an export product of good quality, and one feels assured that the rubber now received from French West Africa, particularly those of Conakry, are of good quality, and above all homogeneous, an attribute that adds much to their essential value. For the purpose of realizing for all of the French African colonies the uniform regulation desired, a decree has been formulated which it is thought will inspire the same feeling in the colonies as that inspired in France for the elimination of the adulteration of rubber. This decree forbids the sale of balls of adulterated rubber. RUBBER-TREE PLANTING IN THE EAST. (From United States Consul-General Hughes, Coburg, Germany.) The recent report of Mr. Stanley Arden, of Selangor, is of real value on account of the information it contains about rubber cultivation in the Far East. It records the assured success of the Pararubber tree in the Malay Peninsula, thus extending the field available for the production of the world's best grade of rubber. While the initial planting of Hevea in India proved a complete failure, better results were obtained from the beginnings made in Ceylon and the Malay States, where the seedlings rapidly developed into vigorous trees. But, as Mr. Arden says, very little interest was taken in rubber by planters, presumably on account of the high prices then ruling for coffee, which afforded an earlier return than was possible in the case of rubber. With a decline in the price of coffee, planters began to look for other sources of profit. During the season 1896-97 the planting of rubber was taken up seriously. Since then its cultivation has received great attention, and there are at the present time, in the Malay Peninsula alone, at least 12,000 acres planted with Hevea, representing about 1,500,000 trees, presumably the whole being the progeny of the trees originally introduced by the government of India in 1876. The opinion has prevailed, and quite naturally, that any rubber species would require, for its successful cultivation, the conditions of soil, climate, etc., peculiar to its native habitat. The conditions found on the margins of the Brazilian water ways clearly do not exist in the Malay States, but this fact has not interfered with the satisfactory growth there of Hevea. OLIVER J. D. HUGHES, COBURG, GERMANY, September 9, 1903. EDUCATION AND THE ELIMINATION OF CRIME. The following is a résumé of an article (translated in the Bureau of Statistics) in Die Woche (The Week), a German magazine, of August 22, 1903: Since the Prussian schoolmaster is said to have won Sadowa, education in Europe has been taken as the measure of culture. Knowledge of the elementary parts of the sciences is now regarded as essential to progress. Everywhere in the Western World the school doors are being flung wide open, particularly for the people who have to labor. Taking the year 1840, the year in which the modern movements may be said to have got fully under way, and compare it with the year |