A month later, once Professor Anton Perutz's team arrived in East Africa, the East African Agricultural Research Institute could begin operating.
August 15, 1868.
North Great Lakes District (Uganda).
The immigrants had only just finished working the fields when they threw themselves, without stopping for breath, into the grand undertaking of planting trees.
This time, they were planting rubber tree seeds imported from Brazil. Under the guidance of Brazilian agricultural experts, the immigrants planted the rubber saplings according to procedure.
"The saplings here must not be planted too densely. The plots need good ventilation and sunlight, and transportation must be convenient as well, so they can be better managed and tapped in the future," the Brazilian agricultural "expert," Albert Verga, told the colony's farm workers.
Back in Brazil, Albert Verga had merely been an ordinary rubber grower, though he had considerable planting experience.
"The drainage work must be done properly, especially in places with very gentle slopes. But the slope must not be too steep either; a slight incline will do."
"Mr. Albert Verga, may I ask whether temperature affects the growth of rubber trees?" an East African immigrant asked.
"No, no, that is not something you should concern yourselves with. As long as it is tropical, the temperature will generally meet the needs of rubber trees. Of course, excessively high elevations definitely will not do. When the temperature drops below five degrees, the rubber trees may suffer frost damage. But I lived in Brazil for many years and never encountered low temperatures," Albert Verga said.
"You newcomers probably do not know this, but East Africa simply does not have spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The temperature stays more or less like this all year round; there are only rainy and dry seasons, divided by rainfall," an old immigrant told