PLANTATION RUBBER ESTDUSTRY OF THE EAST. 485 



The latest int'oiuiatioii available on tlie subject is cuiitaiiiod m 

 the report of the Nilambur Teak Plantations, 1895 (Appendix C, 

 p. 69). The following remarks (quoted from Commercial Circular, 

 No. 8 of 1897, issued by the Reporter on Economic Products to 

 the Government of India) appear under Exotic Plantations — 

 Rvibber : — 



3. Working. — The I'ubber is quite out of place in the middle 

 of a teak plantation, even shoiild it prove itself of any commercial 

 value. The soil occupied is some of the most valuable in the 

 plantations. Experiments are now being conducted in ta}>ping 

 the rubber, and, as far as they have gone, sliow little prospect 

 of any material revenue being realized. The biggest trees are 

 now nearly twenty years old, and each covers the space reqviired 

 for two teak trees of the same age. The yield appears to be from 

 4 to 6 oz. of rubber, which production may perhaps be continued 

 for five or six years (even this is very doubtful), and the result 

 expressed in current coin would compare very unfavom'ably with 

 the value of two teak trees of the same age. 



Probably the most paying thmg to do would be to fell this area 

 in 1895, clean, and to plant it up with teak. In order, however, 

 that the success or failure of the rubber growing may be proved, 

 it is proposed to clean and fell at the end of the first rotation in 

 1900, when very few saplings of small size will be available, and 

 plant up the whole area with teak in 1901. This compartment 

 will then work into the working circle." 



In a note on the Working Plan for the Nilambur Valley 



Teak Plantation, the Inspector-General of Forests in India, 



Mr. B. Ribbentrop (" Indian Forester," 1898, p. 168), discusses 



the suggestions for cutting out the rubber trees as follows : — 



It would appear that the experiments carried out with tlie 

 introduction of rubber -yielding trees have so far been unsuccessful, 

 but I feel nevertheless disinclined to agree in the proposal thnf 

 the exi^eriments of making the Nilambur basm an important 



centre of rubber supply should be discontiimed To me 



it seems that the Nilambur basin is eminently adapU-d for the 

 growth of rubber-yielding plants, and the facility of exiiort renders 

 the prospect of a trade in a produ<;t whicli can bear a land trans- 

 port of hundreds of miles particularly attractive. Th(^ demand 

 for rubber, and its price, are constantly incrc^asing, and I would 

 strongly advise that experiments should be contiimed till the 

 most suitable rubber-yielding tree is found, wliich will grow in 

 localities not requked for the extension of the teak plantation. ' 



IX. — Burma. 



A Note on the Cultivation of Hevea brasillemis in the 

 Tenasserim Forest Circle was written by Colonel W. J. Seaton, 

 Conservator of Forests, in 1888 (see Kew Bulletin, 1898, p. 264) 



