The latex is thickened, sometimes simply with water in the proportion of 3 to 1, and at other times with chlorate of sodium alone, or with a mixture of alum, as is customary in Bahia and in S. Paulo, or now again by the action of alum-stone, double sulphate of aluminium and of potassium as is done in Pernambuco, Parahyba, and Rio Grande do Norte. All those processes present serious inconveniences, such as the entry of water augmenting the weight, the baneful effects and dampness arising from the use of a large proportion of salt, or the loss of elasticity due to the last mentioned process, which turns the rubber cracky and resinous. The smoking process seems in every way to be advisable whenever the richness of the milky-latex in rubber is perfectly comparable to that of the hevea. Whilst it is affirmed that the production per tree is from 3 to 5 kilogrammes it is more prudent to calculate the average capacity of each tree as at 1 kilogramme. THE ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF RUBBER EXPLOITATION The economic organization of the exploitation of rubber in the Amazonic valley still remains in its rudimentary condition, continuing almost exactly on the same lines as those adopted when the production of this article—one of the principal sources of the wealth of Brazil—first began to open up. This unaltered condition of affairs in the modifying of the economical processes, is the consequence of the continuance of certain conditions such as the existence of vast regions still entirely unexplored, the progressive penetration of the seringueiros guided by the course of the rivers into far away regions where rapid means of communication are completely lacking, the scarcity of labor, and the necessity of capital being embarked in the extraction of rubber. The régime of private property is still limited, and does not extend beyond a few kilometres into the Interior, starting from the banks of the rivers, since the greater part of the lands still continue to be the property of the States either of Amazonas or of Pará, and—in the territory of the Acre—of the Federal Government. With the object of peopling the rubber-producing regions endeavors are being made to facilitate the acquiring of properties by furnishing their owners with adequate guarantees of protection, special Public Departments having already been created in the State of Amazonas and Pará devoted to the fiscalization of the régime of lands; and the régime of lands in the Acre Territory is about to be regulated at once by the Federal Government in accordance with the determinations set forth in the new economic measure known as the Rubber Defense Act. The proprietory question originated itself in the concession of lands granted under certain conditions such as that of its effective exploitation and cultivation, colonization, etc., and by the legitimation of the possession. These last were established in the following manner: