November i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



59 



The India-Rubber Interest in the East. 



AT one of the sessions of the International Rubber Conference 

 held in connection with the International Rubber and Al- 

 lied Trades Exhibition, at Olympia, at which Sir Henry 

 A. Blake, c. c. m. c, presided over a large audience, Mr. M. Kel- 

 way Bamber, representing the government of Ceylon, lectured 

 on "The Cultivation and Preforation of Rubber in the East." 



The lecturer reminded all interested in the industry that the 

 more haste the less speed, and the cheapest and most rapidly 

 grown and manufactured rubber was not necessarily going to 

 prove the most profitable in the long run. Eastern planters and 

 manufacturers had to produce rubber that would stand every com- 

 mercial test, and they could not afford to run the risk of putting 

 on the markets of the world an inferior article that would not 

 stand tests of time and wear. Results had already shown that 

 plantation rubber properly prepared from latex of mature trees 

 was equal to the best Para, and for certain purposes superior. 

 But it was not invariably the case that the rubber was properly 

 prepared, and therefore those concerned must neglect no chance 

 of remedying errors, and profiting by the experience, which it 

 was hoped would be largely gained from the present instructive 

 Exhibition. 



As regards soils, the rubber plant had a great power of adap- 

 tability, though rich alluvial soil suited it best. In Malaya, where 

 the soil was most alluvial, the growth of Para was very rapid 

 when once the land had been drained, and a height of 12 to 

 14 feet and girth 4^ to 5 inches after a year's growth were 

 common, and these dimensions were frequently exceeded. In 

 all cases, however, the Para evidently did best where the soil 

 was rich in decomposed humus (not peat) and with a fairly 

 high percentage of nitrogen. 



In Ceylon most of the rubber was first planted on ravines on 

 tea estates, and the shade of the tea bushes protected the soil 

 from too much exposure to the sun. In Malaya in the same way 

 rubber was planted with Liberian coffee, and the shade given by 

 the latter's dense growth protected the soil from the sun. 



The lecturer exhibited on tlie screen photographs of various 



By M. Kfl-i'iiy Bamber. 



in-cj growing on estates in the East, and cultivated with and 



without catch crops, and also with various green manures, which 

 he thought showed convincingly that clean weeding was not 

 essential to procuring excellent growths of rubber. He did not, 

 however, advocate allowing grasses to run riot, but rather a 

 crop of such habit as could be kept under control. With regard 

 to lalang grass which caused much trouble on many estates, he 

 mentioned that the passion flower had been found to be effica- 

 cious in destroying this pest at small expense, and he ventured 

 to think that the passion flower would ultimately prove the salva- 

 tion of many estates that had not sufficient capital to warrant 

 large expenditure otherwise required for eradicating the lalang. 

 Much money had been uselessly expanded in clean weeding. 



There were several indegnous plants, such as Crotabaria mimosa 

 and Desmodimus which could be grown in many instances in such 

 a dense manner that it was impossible for any weeds to grow 

 between them. .A.11 these plants which belonged to the Legum- 

 iniosa, and greatly benefited soils and rubber by their growth, 

 were under perfect control, and easily eradicated. 



The alluvial fiats of the Federated Malay States required an 

 enormous amount of draining, costing large sums of money, and 

 even then much water remained in the subsoils. Here the 

 growth of a lu.xuriant green crop with a branching and deep- 

 root system had the further important advantage of removing by 

 evaporation through the leaves much of this sour subsoil water 

 which was unfavorable to development of the rubber tap root on 

 which the stability of the trees during the heavy winds largely 

 depended. It has been clearly proved that the baking of the sur- 

 face by the sun did not dry soil or subsoil so completely 

 as did a growing leaf crop. But apart from these considerations 

 there were other and more important ones of the question 

 of humus, and the hygroscopic power of the soil by which the 

 future flow of the latex would be influenced to a large extent. 

 The growth of green crops in place of clean weeding has also 

 long been advocated by Mr. Carruthers, the director of agri- 

 culture in the Federated Malay States, and it seemed that clean 





Spiral Tapping of "Hevea." 



"Ceara" Rubber Tree and Method of Tapping, Ceylon. 



