February i, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



149 



RUBBER PLANTING AND EXPLOITATION. 



CEYLON RUBBER AT THE ST. LOUIS WORLDS FAIR. 



ACCORDING to reports from Ceylon, gold medals were 

 awarded (or exhibits of Ceylon products (including cul- 

 tivated rubber) to H. V. Bagot, who is mentioned else- 

 where in these columns ; to R. VV. Harrison, and to 

 the Heatherly and Hindugala estates, and a silver medal to the 

 Gikiyanakande estate. Certain other awards were made, but 

 the estates here named are mentioned particularly on account 

 of having been referred to in Mr. Pearson's recent correspond- 

 ence on rubber planting in the Far East. 



LETTER hROM A CEYLON PLANTER. 



Mr. H. v. Bagot, manager of the Aropolakanda estate of the 

 Eastern Produce and Estates Co., Limited, at Tebuwana, Cey- 

 lon, writes to TnK India Rubber World (November 13) : "1 

 am having a very good year here, and shall get very nearly 2 

 pounds of dry rubber per tree, and am averaging 5 shillings net ; 

 so shall show a clear profit of £80 sterling L=about $390] per 

 acre. Not so bad in these hard times." This is the second 

 year of production. Last year, as stated in this Journal [July 

 I, 1904— page 344] Mr. Bagot reported proceeds averaging 

 about $280 per acre, on a yield of a little less than lyi pounds 

 of rubber per tree.'=^Mr. Bagot also writes: "May I make a 

 correction as to rubber 'stumps.' [See The India Rubber 

 World, October i, 1904 — page 12.] These are not 'tapped ' 

 seedlings, but plants grown from seed in our nurseries, of about 

 one year or more old and of a finger thickness. We ' stump ' 

 i.e., cut these down to about 20 inches, more or less, according 

 to fancy, when we plant them out on our clearings. I never 

 heard of seedlings being 'tapped.'" [This is really what we 

 meant to convey in our former paragraph, but a mistake was 

 made in using the word " tap " to indicate the cutting back of 

 the seedlings.— The Editor.] 



" RECORD prices" FOR CEYLON RUBBER. 

 Referring to the sale of Ceylon plantation rubber at the 

 London auctions on November 11 [See The India Rubber 

 World, December i, page loi]. The Times of Ceylon men- 

 tions the sources of the two lots bringing the highest prices. 

 A parcel of 239 pounds from Aberdeen estate. Lower Dikoya, 

 realized 5^. g;^^'/ [= $i.4o>^] per pound. This estate, 95 miles 

 by rail from Colombo, embraces 478 acres, of which 359 are 

 planted in tea. The proprietors are the Alliance Tea Co. of 

 Ceylon, Limited, and the resident manager Mr. J. M. Mitchell. 

 There are now on the estate about 1300 rubber trees of suf- 

 ficient age for tapping, but 35,000 new trees have been planted 

 during the year. A lot of five cases, for which 5^. ()d. was 

 realized, was the product of Langsland estate, in Kalutara 

 district, owned by the heirs of H. Booth, and managed by Mr. 

 A. P. Booth. There are two estates under this control, on 

 which 249 acres are planted in tea, with rubber interplanted, 

 and 87 acres in rubber alone. The Times of Ceylon says "the 

 rubber was taken from trees 7 to 8 years old, and was thus well 

 matured rubber in every respect." Space is given here to these 

 details as pointing to the possibility of rubber manufacturers 

 being able in time to supply their requirements in rubber direct 

 from known estates proprietors, as directly as consumers of 

 rubber goods may now deal with the manufacturer. The 



Times of Ceylon (November 23), mentioning the purchase in 

 London of 6 tons of Ceylon rubber from several Kalatura and 

 Kelani Valley estates at 6 shillings [=$1.45] per pound, says: 



" No doubt the extra pence per pound were secured for the 

 large lot offered, as buyers naturally prefer a good quantity to 

 good lots," Still later came the London auction of November 

 25, at which (ss. \d. [—nearly $1.48] was paid, for rubber from 

 Maddagedera, Halwatura, and Delwita estates. 



AN AGRICULTURAL SCIENTIST IN THE FAR EAST. 



Mr. J. B. Carruthers has resigned the post of government 

 mycologist and assistant director of the royal botanical gar- 

 dens at Peradeniya, Ceylon, to accept the newly created posi- 

 tion of director of agriculture and government botanist in the 

 Federated M ilay States. The planters in the latter section are 

 to be congratulated, in view of the high order of ability which 

 Mr. Carruthers has developed during his service in Ceylon, 

 which dates back to 1890. He enters upon his new duties in 

 enthusiastic belief in the possibility of the Malay States be- 

 coming as prosperous agriculturally as they are now from a 

 mining point of view. They may even become the premier 

 rubber producing colony, and to this end Mr. Carruthers un- 

 doubtedly will exert himself to the utmost. Readers of The 

 India Rubber World have learned of his interest in rubber 

 culture in Ceylon, particularly with regard to the treatment of 

 the canker fungus in rubber. As regards Mr. Carruthers's pro- 

 fessional career, it appears that since leaving the university he 

 has been successively demonstrator of botany at the Royal 

 Veterinary College, London ; assistant consulting botanist to 

 the Royal Agricultural Society of England ; professor of bot- 

 any at the College of Agriculture, Dounton, Hampshire ; and, 

 lastly, in connection with the Ceylon botanical gardens, as 

 above noted. Mr. Carruthers delivered to the planters' asso- 

 ciation of the Matale district, Ceylon, on November 19, a lec- 

 ture on canker in cacao, which was in the nature of a farewell 

 address to the planters of the colony. 



RUBBER SEED SHIPMENTS FROM CEYLON. 



The success of rubber culture in Ceylon has led to a large 

 demand for Pard (Hevea) rubber seed for export from that 

 island. The Times of Ceylon mentions the shipment during 

 August of 148,000 seeds (in cases of 2000 each), the larger part 

 going to Singapore — presumably for planting in the Malay 

 States. There were shipments also to Calcutta, Rangoon, 

 Sumatra, and South Africa. Shipments continued at a good 

 rate during September, the " CuUoden " and " Kepitigalla " 

 estates being mentioned as affording an important share of the 

 supply. In the Times of September 9 Mr. F. J. Holloway, 

 manager of the latter estate, writes : " I have two single orders 

 of 600.000 seed each to execute, both going abroad." Some of 

 the seed exported, however, is supplied by the botanical de- 

 partment, which leads the Times to suggest that seeds grown 

 at the public expense might properly be kept at home, to be of 

 benefit to the island. It advises a system of free distribution 

 of seeds to villagers, to be planted near their homes, and while 

 the result in each case might be insignificant, in the aggregate 

 it might ultimately prove important. 



TO CHECK THE OUTPUT OF " CAMETA " RUBBER. 

 The idea was advanced in a recent report by Mr. Consul 

 Ayme, at Para, that "Cametd" rubber was a special grade, 

 rather than the product of a particular locality. [See The In- 

 dia Rubber World, August 1,1904 — page 379.] This view 

 apparently is entertained by the Para government, since a re- 

 cent letter received from there refers to a proposed higher tax 



