RUBBER CULTIVATION IN THE EAST 541 



acres opened in rubber in Ceylon, about 60,000 in the Malay- 

 Peninsula, and perhaps 13,000 in South India, besides possibly 

 about another 20,000 in other countries, such as Samoa, 

 Seychelles, Java, Cochin-China, tropical Africa, etc. Already, 

 then, one of the largest planting industries in the tropics has 

 been created. 



Not only so, but, thanks to the work of Parkin and others, 

 this has proved to be one of the most, if not actually the most, 

 profitable industries ever established. Many estates in Ceylon 

 have been lately harvesting rubber at the rate of 200 lb. an acre, 

 at a cost of about 15. a lb., and selling it for 55. to 6s. Even at 

 the lower figure, there is a profit of £40 an acre per annum. 



The early crude method of tapping in V's was soon given 

 up, and two or three systems are now in vogue, especially the 

 " herring-bone " and the " half-spiral." In the one a narrow 

 vertical channel is cut from a height of 6 ft. down to the 

 ground, and lateral channels made from it at angles of about 45 . 

 In the other, spiral grooves are cut half-way round the tree 

 at angles of 30 to 45 . The wound-response is obtained in 

 these by paring the edges of the " spiral " or " herring-bones," 

 and the various knives that have been designed for the purpose 

 take off very thin parings. 



During the last two years the planting public of Ceylon and 

 Malaya has been mainly interested in rubber planting, which 

 has been the one absorbing topic of conversation, and the shares 

 in the many companies started have already risen, when there 

 was any rubber yield in fairly near prospect, to three to eight 

 times their par value; and they are firmly held even at these 

 figures, showing what practical men, who as yet have been 

 the principal investors, think of their prospects. This being so, 

 the attention of the whole rubber world was naturally focussed 

 upon the Rubber Exhibition held from September 13 to 27, 

 1906, in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya, in Ceylon. 

 Large buildings, covering over half an acre, were mainly 

 filled with raw, and to some extent manufactured, rubber, 

 tools for tapping, machinery for treatment, and other objects 

 of interest. 



It would be foreign to the purpose of this paper to enter 

 into any description of the exhibits ; but it may not be amiss 

 to point out one or two of the directions in which the exhibition 

 demonstrated that science must still be called to the aid of the 



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