l82 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



By Jared Smith, Special Agent in Charge, Hawaii Expen- 

 ineiir Station. 



It is claimed by Indian planters that there is a difference in 

 the quality of rubber produced by young and mature Hevea trees. 

 Rubber from 5-year-old trees does not command more than 80 

 cents per pound while that from trees 8 or more years old, sells 

 for as high as $1.50. 



Indian Planting and Gardening states that in Ceylon a 300- 

 acre rubber plantation 8 years old. which had cost $36,000 for 

 labor and all expenses of management, produced in one year 

 rubber valued at $91,300. The trees were Hcveas, planted 200 

 to the acre. This is a doubtful statement, probable untrue, be- 

 cause only $140,000 worth of rubber was exported from Ce_\ Ion 

 in 1905. 



Mr. Ridley, Director of the Signapore Botanic Gardens, has 

 the following to say in regard to rubber prospects : 



"The area -n which rubber has been produced is almost ex- 

 iiausted of the product, and a large part of that area, (the greater 

 part of Africa,) is utterly unsuited for the cultivation of any 

 rubber plant of any value. The Landolphias of Africa are quite 

 unsuited for cultivation and are never likely to come into com- 

 petition with the cultivated Hevea and Eicus. Over the large 

 area which produced these rubbers and which is now nearly ex- 

 hausted of its stock, there is little or no ground suited to the cul- 

 tivation of those rubbers which aie possible of remunerative cul- 

 tivation. Tlie volume of rubber produced by this area must there- 

 fore be supplied by the increasing area of cultivation in the Malay 

 Peninsula, Ceylon and a few other parts of th.e world. Mexico 

 and Northern Brazil may perhaps be able to supply Castilloa and 

 Hevea rubber in sufficient amount to replace the denuded forests 

 of the Amazons. But in the meantime the demand is increasing 

 and it will be long before the product can possibly be produced 

 in sufficient quantity to fill even the present demand. Rubber 

 then is almost the ideal cultivation for the planter. Rubber is in 

 fact the onlv product known to me, which, while it has an uni- 

 versal use, has so limited an area of production, and it is also 

 unique in having practically disappeared from a large area which 



