492 FETCH : 



believer in the cultivation of indiarubber as practicable at least 



for that part of the world It may be that Mi". Willis 



has found in Ceylon exceptionally favourable circumstances, and 

 that the hundreds of planters who in that Island are now seeding 

 Para rubber alongside their tea estates may derive a profit 

 therefrom as promptly as the last generation did from their first 

 ])lantings of tea. Though we Americans are little tempted to 

 invest in rubber plantations under any conditions, we may watch 

 with interest the development so confidently predicted in Ceylon, 

 reinembering that we, no less than the rest of the world, have 

 profited from the enterprise shown by the English colonists there 

 for more than a third of a century in the growing of cinchona. 



" The Tropical Agriculturist," commenting on the same 



report, -svTote : " Mr. Willis's sober statement of fact is by no 



means discouraging to the actual or intending rubber planters 



There is, therefore, clear encouragement to go into 



rubber \nth the Para kind " {T. A., XVII., p. 41) 



*' Following the Henaratgoda experience as tabulated ]\y Mr. 



Willis, we consider Para rubber culture as safe an industry as any 



which can be recommended to capitalists and planters who are 



not in a hurry for immediate returns " {T. A., X\T;I., p. 83). 



In the same year, in response to an inquiry from the Colonial 

 Office initiated by the Director of Kew, Sir WiUiam Thiselton 

 Dyer, a Sessional Paper (XXIII. of 1897) was published by 

 the Ceylon Government, recounting the progress made in 

 Ceylon. It contained a history of Hevea in Ceylon by the 

 Director of the Botanic Gardens, an account of the plantations 

 under the Forest Department, by Mr. F. Lewis, and details 

 (with estimates) of a proposal to establish a plantation of 

 3,000 acres. The reception accorded this proposal by the 

 planting community has aheady been referred to. 



In June, 1897, Ridley published an article on Rubber 

 CHiltivation (Agricultural Bulletin of the Malay Peninsula), 

 which included several new points of the greatest importance. 

 In the lirst place, he stated that the trees could Ix) tapped at 

 the ago of tlu-oo, if well grown, though it was better to wait 

 until they were five. Previous writers had all been of the 

 opinion that tapping should not bo begun until the ago of ten, 

 and the earlier rubber planters had consequently planted 

 Hevea on estates of other products as a secondary crop ; but 

 Kidloy's declaration brought the planting of rubber as a sole 

 jiroduct within practical range. 



