CHAPTER III

The Experimental Stations for the culture of rubber

Art. 11. The experimental stations for the culture of seringueira in the Territory of Acre and the States of Matto-Grosso, Amazonas, Pará, Maranhão, Piauhy and Bahia, and for the culture of maniçoba jointly with that of mangabeira, in the States of Piauhy, Ceará, Pernambuco, Bahia, Minas Geraes, S. Paulo, Goyaz, Paraná and Matto Grosso, have in view with the experimental study of all the factors relating to the regional culture of each of these trees, for the purpose of furnishing the cultivators with precise data for the adoption of methods and processes, which will make possible the economic and perfect production of their respective rubber.

Art. 12. The experimental stations shall be established on lands that possess the following requisites:

1. Climatic situation and agricultural conditions required by the nature or quality of the plant to be cultivated.

2. The physical constitution and natural chemical composition which will permit conjunctly and parallel the culture of the principal food stuffs or plants of industrial utility.

3. Localization at points easily accessible by good roads so that they can be visited and verified, as well in the fields as in the books of registry of the farmers and agricultural accounts of the practical results and economies of the different services and operations. The existence of permanent water courses, or dams with sufficient capacity to guarantee irrigation when necessary, and also other agricultural services.

Art. 13. The total area of each experimental station shall be from 80 to 100 hectares, so that there can be made at the same time in distinct partial areas the culture of the portions destined for experiments relative to each kind of tree and a demonstration of the normal systematic development of the respective culture, for comparison of the products and their revenue.

Art. 14. In the area reserved for demonstration, there shall be included those which will serve as examples, being the first cultivated between the processes that shall have proven the most advantageous and which are sought to be introduced, and lastly of those generally adopted in that region.

Art. 15. In each station there shall be reserved the land necessary for the establishment of a nursery of fruit trees and the production of selected seeds of alimentary plants or those of industrial utility, whose culture along with the principal plant shall be considered advantageous.

Art. 16. Every experimental station shall have the following installations:

1. A physiological vegetable laboratory, the proving of seeds and phytopathology.

2. Laboratory of agricultural entomology.

3. Laboratory of agricultural, vegetable and bromatological chemistry.

[Illustration: FUMIGATING CAOUTCHOUC.]

4. Laboratory of microbiological and technical agriculture.

5. An agricultural and floral museum.

6. A corridor for machines.

7. A meteorological station.

Sole Paragraph. A station that may be established in a region where there already exists a federal institution of similar kind, pertaining to agriculture in general, the installations above mentioned shall be reduced to numbers 5, 6, and 7 and shall be provided with a small laboratory for the mechanical analysis of the soil, and utensils and instruments necessary for the proving of seeds of useful vegetables, so that a choice or selection may be made and their identity, purity, quality and germinating energy may be verified, including in these experiments those which refer to plants that are injurious.

Art. 17. To accomplish the ends proposed, the experimental stations ought to:

1. Attend the consultations that may be held upon any agricultural question in their line.

2. Execute gratuitously analysis of fertilizers, spices, plants and water, when required by the nearest federal institute, when it does not possess the necessary laboratories.

3. Distribute selected plants and seeds.

4. Study the diseases common to the plants cultivated and the means of combating them, and explaining these things to those interested.

5. To publish yearly and distribute free of charge a bulletin devoted to the relation of the works done and the useful knowledge acquired relative to agricultural and rural industrial subjects, and especially the results obtained as to the most practical and economic method of cultivating the trees that produce rubber, and the most profitable subsidiary plants, as well as the best methods of the treatment, conservation and packing of the products.

Art. 18. There shall be admitted to the experimental stations, persons who wish to gain a practical knowledge in any of the sections, at the discretion of the Director, who shall fix the number of students in agreement with the chief of the respective section.

Sole Paragraph. On equal terms, apprentices between 15 and 18 years of age, shall be admitted, the numbers to be determined by the respective Director, with the approval of the Minister, who shall have daily tasks corresponding to their capacity and aptitude. The Director in the name of the Minister shall give a certificate, on which shall be indicated the work that has been done, to all those who have completed their apprenticeship.

Art. 19. The plan of each station shall be organized to meet the peculiar necessities of the zone in which it may be established, conserving, however, the principal fundamentals already set forth.

Art. 20. The position of Director shall be held by a person who is a specialist in any one of the technical sections, and at the same time shall be its chief, an indispensable condition being that in addition to his technical knowledge he shall have had a practical apprenticeship.

Art. 21. The technical positions may be filled, by contract, by native or foreign professors of established ability.

Art. 22. To each of the stations there shall be sent a special regulation determining for them their proportions according to the necessities of the case, fixing the term and salaries of their respective personnel and providing for the special necessities to come.

TITLE II

The creation of the Refining and Manufacturing Rubber Industries

ONLY CHAPTER

Art. 23. The first factory for the refining of seringa rubber that shall be established in each of the cities of Belém (Pará) and Manáos, and of maniçoba and mangabeira rubber which shall be established in the States of Piauhy, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Bahia, Minas Geraes and S. Paulo, as well as the first factory of rubber articles which shall be established in Manáos, in Belém, in Recife (Pernambuco) in Bahia, and in Rio de Janeiro, there shall be conceded the following premiums and favors:

(a) Up to 400,000 milreis in money to the plants for the refining of seringa rubber;

Up to 100,000 milreis in money to the plants for the refining of maniçoba and mangabeira rubber;

Up to 500,000 milreis in money for plants for manufacturing rubber articles.

(b) Exemption from import duties, including fees in the manner and by the processes described in Articles 3 and 91 combined, as the case may require, for all material, machines, utensils and hardware necessary for the construction and complete equipment of the factory, as well as all chemical substances, cloth and different materials, combustibles and lubricants necessary for the working and maintenance of the factory, during a period of 25 years.

(c) The right of appropriation for public use, according to the legislation in force, of the lands and improvements belonging to individuals that may be judged appropriate and necessary for the equipment of the factory and its dependencies.

(d) A preference given by the Government for the purchase of the products used in the service of the Army and Navy and the federal public departments, which shall be manufactured by the factories, when they can compete in quality with similar foreign articles—the contract for furnishing the same, adjudicated every 3 years with each factory, for those of their products which were classified in the first place in the expositions mentioned in Article 95.

(e) Exemption from all State and Municipal duties for the same time as in letter b, because the factory is considered to be of service to the Government.

Art. 24. In order to claim these favors any company or organization that expects to erect one or more factories, should conform to the following formalities and conditions:

1. Present to the Minister of Agriculture a previous request accompanied by the following documents:

(a) General and detailed plan of the factories;

(b) An estimate of the expenses for the first establishment;

(c) A descriptive memorandum in which the capacity of production of the factory is declared the principal articles intended to be manufactured, the lowest price for which it is proposed to wash and refine rubber, which should be reduced, for each quality, to one type and superior for exportation, in general giving the Government all the information that will help it to form a correct opinion as to the nature and importance of the projected establishment;

(d) Certificates and references which will prove the complete professional and financial ability of the suitor.

2. To obligate himself in the contract made with the Minister of Agriculture, the clause of reversion at the end of the combined term.

3. To allow the official appointed by the Government for the fiscalization, to visit the works during the period of construction, for the purpose of verifying the actual amount of expenses incurred for the first establishment and determining the value of the pecuniary premium, which shall be in any of the three cases, equal to a fourth part of the expense, not exceeding the limits fixed in letter a of Article 23, as well as to visit the establishment when he desires after it begins work, in order that he may be sure, that the materials imported free of duty are effectively and exclusively used in the products of the factory.

4. To send annually to the Minister, through the said fiscal a prepared statement in which shall be specified:

(a) The amount and quality and the place where produced of the rubber used as raw material;

(b) The kind and quantity and value of the products of the factory used at home and exported;

(c) The number of employes, native and foreign, effectively in service during the year, with specification of their respective classes.

Art. 25. The premium in money shall be paid, as soon as the factory is inaugurated, at the National Treasury or at the Delegacia Fiscal of the State in which it is situated, when authorized by the Minister of Agriculture.

TITLE III

Assistance to immigrants, native or recently arrived foreigners and laborers already established in the valley of the Amazon.