October i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



23 



The Rubber Planting World. 



EASTERN PLANTING ON A SOUND BASIS. 



AS a result of a recent visit to the Far East by Mr. Herbert 

 Wright, who has become the editor of The India Rub- 

 ber Journal after several years' residence in Ceylon in 

 an official capacity which brought him into intimate relations 

 with the beginnings of rubber culture there, he expresses satis- 

 faction with the progress which has been made up to date and 

 the fullest confidence in the future of the planting interest. 

 After a minute examination of the business he concludes that 

 rubber cultivation is on a perfectly sound basis, and any who 

 may have any misgivings he advises to make a visit to the East, 

 where the plantations of Hevea aggregate some 350,000 acres 

 [=^545 square miles]. He concludes a recent article by saying: 

 "At the present time the Eastern acreage in bearing is small, 

 and less than 2,000 tons of rubber will probably be exported 

 during 1909; ultimately the trees already planted should yield 

 a crop equal to that annually exported from Brazil." 



WAHNnJG AGAINST TOO MITCH PLANTING. 



The Ceylon Observer in an editorial on the rate of increase 

 in the production of plantation rubber in Ceylon and the Fed- 



Llring "Castilloa" Rubber at La Zacualpa. 



[Plantation in the state of Chiapas. Mexico. 1 



erated Malay States, in the course of which estimates are made 

 of the ^)ossible product of the more recent plantings, based 

 upon the actual results from earlier plantings, and taking 

 into account what is being done in India, this suggestion is made : 

 "If again, five years later, southern Asia is expected to be pro- 

 ducing (or capable of producing) 'plantation rubber' equal in 

 quantity in one year to the present consumption of the world, 

 it is surely time now to stop planting any more rubber, until 

 it is seen what effect on prices largely increasing exports from 

 the East from 1911 onwards may produce." 



rubber INTEnPLANTING. 



The first planting of rubber on an extensive scale in Ceylon 

 was in connection with cacao, though afterward much rubber 

 was interplanted with tea. Latterly rubber has been planted on 

 a large scale without connection with any other crop. The 

 Ceylon Observer finds, however, that the planting of rubber to- 

 gether with tea or cacao is still continued. The idea has pre- 

 vailed at times that the tea might eventually be given up when 

 interplanted with rubber, on account of the greater possible 

 profits from the latter, but recently the tea situation has im- 



proved, whereas the possibility of a permanent decline in rubber 

 prices on account of increased production has come to be recog- 

 nized. Discussing the whole question the Observer says : "Of 

 course, a great deal depends on the price of rubber keeping up. 

 Should the price, eight years hence or so, fall by any chance to 

 a level leaving little or no profit, we might expect every endeavor 

 to be made to keep on the tea, even to the sacrifice of the rub- 

 ber. But if, as is expected, the latter continues to be the more 

 profitable of the two, as the trees come to be tapped and attain 

 maturity, the tea is bound to gradually disappear." In this con- 

 nection may be quoted from the Tropical Agriculturist : "Cacao 

 is proving to be perhaps the best crop to grow with rubber in 

 Ceylon. The best average growth we have yet measured is on. 

 an estate growing these two products." 1 



PLANTING RESULTS IN MALAYA, 



In an analysis of the rubber plantation product of Federated 

 Malay States for 1907 the Pinang Gazette shows that in ten dis- 

 tricts 12,978 acres produced 1,684,620 pounds of rubber, or an 

 average of 130 pounds per acre. The average per acre in the 

 various districts varied from 90 to 166 pounds. No account is 

 taken of the ages of the trees. 



The Straits Settlements (Bertram) Rubber Co., Limited, re- 

 port for the business year 1907-08 a yield of just under 40,000 

 pounds of rubber from 27,257 trees, or about ij^ pounds per 

 tree. The number of trees tapped in 1906-07 was 27,257, and the 

 average yield nearly iJ4 pounds. 



ANTWERP AS A RUBBER MARKET. 



Plantation rubber from the Straits Settlements appears regu- 

 larly at the monthly sales at Antwerp, but this appears to be the 

 produce mainly of one or two plantations which are owned by 

 Belgian countries. The results obtained at Antwerp have been 

 most satisfactory, with regard both to the prices realized and 

 the low selling expenses as compared with London. An English 

 gentleman in Malaya interested in planting declares that he 

 would prefer Anwerp to London as a market for rubber. It 

 happens, however, that many of the Far Eastern companies are 

 under such relations to English financial houses as practically 

 to obligate the planters to ship their produce to London. Ulti- 

 mately, however, any such relations will have ceased to exist 

 when the producers of rubber will naturally seek to market which 

 aflfords the most favorable results. Of course, all the rubber 

 produced out there is not going to London to-day, shipments 

 being made direct to most of the rubber-consuming countries, 

 including the United States. 



RUBBER ACREAGE IN THE DUTCH EAST INDIES. 



The total acreage planted to rubber in Java is estimated by a 

 writer in the Ceylon Observer at 58,000, the acreage in Sumatra 

 at 25,000, and in Dutch Borneo at 7,000. Probably half the total 

 is planted to Ficus clastica, which was set out extensively before 

 the introduction of Hevea. An English authority estimates the 

 amount of British capital interested in rubber planting in the 

 Dutch Indies at about £1,750,000. 



CONDITIONS IN HAWAII. 



A REPORT from Hawaii intnli.ms that not less than $500,000 

 has been invested in rubber culture in that territory by five com- 

 panies and a number of individual planters. It is pointed out 

 that none of the companies are depending upon the sale of 

 shares, but that all of the stock is held by a comparatively few 

 persons and the capital paid in. Locally the progress made to 

 date is regarded most favorably, but with the exception of a 

 few trees here and there there is no rubber under cultivation 

 old enough to have become productive. A recent visitor to The 

 India Rubber World offices from Ceylon and Malaya, who 

 is largely interested in rubber planting, having occasion to go 



