The "slump" in rubber proved a set-back in the economic development of the Colony. A report of the Consul at Dar-es-Salaam states the number of rubber trees planted and ready for tapping were 19,000,000. The report proceeds: "Owing to the low prices, all the plantations have limited the number of hands employed, and two of the largest suspended tapping entirely. The planters are heavily handicapped by having to pay the costs of recruiting labour in the interior and its transport down to the plantation. The costs often amount to about £2, 10s. per head before work is begun, and the rate of wages is high--about 16s. 6d. per month for a Wanyamwezi tapper. Owing to a slight rise in the price of rubber, tapping has been resumed by some of the planters, and there is a more hopeful feeling. The small planter has probably a better chance than the large company; his working expenses are less, he can often obtain local labour cheaply or get time-expired hands without paying recruiting fees; and, in addition, he can keep his men under more personal control. "The outlook for the larger estates is far from reassuring, and it is said that some of them have already begun to cut down the rubber trees to make room for other crops. The Colonial Economic Committee is taking steps to introduce a standard quality of East African rubber, the absence of which is another difficulty which has hampered the planters. "There is only one large washing and curing factory in the Colony, at Muhesa, though there are several smaller ones in Usambara. Most of the planters wash the rubber themselves, with the result that it has often to be done again in Europe." The natives collect rubber from the wild forest vines, but rubber balls sent in by Europeans and natives alike are cut through the middle to detect the presence of a core of leaves or other foreign substance. Cotton and coffee are articles also jointly produced by planters and natives. As elsewhere in tropical Africa, cotton grew wild and is now extensively cultivated--the value exported in 1912 being £105,000. The coffee produced by the natives is either collected from the trees which grow wild or by cultivating the indigenous plants. The wild coffee has a small misshapen bean, but is excellently flavoured, the quality of the bean improving with each year of keeping. The value of coffee exported amounts to about £100,000 per annum. On the highlands oats, barley, and wheat are grown successfully; and other articles of export are hides and skins, coming chiefly from the district round Lake Victoria and from the provinces of Ruanda and Urundi, which abound with millions of head of cattle and other live stock. The slopes of the highlands are covered with short sweet grass, and are well watered with perennial streams, which might easily be diverted into channels to irrigate the land below. Though sheep do well in parts, the grass in the main grows too coarse for any small stock, and requires feeding down.