April i, 1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^A70RLD 



211 



Entrance tu India-rubber and Sewage Fai ni. Para kuUl'v:! oc-jJiings. t_ eara L uLlings in Background. 



KAMBE EXPERIMENTAL RUBBER PLANTATION, AT RANGOON. 



taking, the sooner will the needful lessons be learned, and 

 learned once for all. An experimental farm has to be taken 

 as such, pure and simple, and not as in all respects a working 

 model of a plantation for profit. The question of profitable 

 working has to be solved, too, and experimentally. But not 

 on so small a scale, nor on the same lines altogether. For the 

 present, all that is or can be claimed is that the successful 

 raising of Hevea over 17 degrees of latitude along the coast of 

 Burma and the Straits Settlements has been established. If 

 yield and cost of collection, when the time comes, work out 

 similarly, the case for rubber is proved." 



The sewage farm is known as the Kambe plantation. It 

 comprised, on July 10, 1901, the following number of rubber 

 plants, besides which a large number of seeds had lately been 

 placed in the ground : Pard, 2732 ; Cear4, 293 ; other species 

 62 ; total, 3087. 



GUTTA-PERCHA IN THE MALAY STATES. 



The four Federated Malay States, under British administra- 

 tion, have shown a striking degree of material progress, so 

 that their revenue has become larger than that of any of the 

 British crown colonies, except Ceylon. There has been a 

 disposition of late toward systematic conservancy o( the valua- 

 ble forest resources of the States, and some time ago Mr. H. 

 C. Hill, inspector general of the Indian forest department, paid 

 a visit to the States, resulting in a report containing much in- 

 formation of value, together with recommendations which 

 seem likely to be carried out, with profit. Among other 

 things, Mr. Hill favors governmental control of the extraction 

 of India-rubber and Gutta-percha, which latter, it appears, ex- 

 ists to a more important extent than was supposed. 



As for Perak, Mr. Hill is of the opinion that the state has an 

 ample area of Gutta-percha producing forest, and that no re- 

 course is necessary to the establishment of special plantations 

 outside the limits of its natural growth. A working plan is 

 advocated whereby the Palaquium forests be divided into a 

 number of areas, which should come under operation at regu- 

 lar intervals of five to ten years; the operation would consist 

 in giving more light and space to each Palaquium tree, and in 

 transplanting seedlings to blank spaces. 



In Selangor, while most of the mature Gutta-percha trees 

 have disappeared, a very considerable number of young trees 

 exists, and steps are now being taken to mark oflE as reserves 

 those areas in which they have been found. Meanwhile the 

 collection of Gutta has been entirely prohibited. 



In Negri Sembilan already a separate forest department has 



been established, and one reserve formed of 2000 acres of Gutta- 

 percha, on which 18,000 young plants, trees, and stumps have 

 been located, but no trees large enough to yield seed. This 

 work is to be extended over a larger area. 



In Pahang in 1894 the collection of Gutta-percha was for a 

 while prohibited, with the result that the output from the dis- 

 trict beyond the boundary of the state at once became greater 

 — doubtless at the expense of the Pahang forests. To- day the 

 policy of prohibition is again in force, with like results. The 

 British resident favors throwing open the Gutta-percha areas 

 near the boundary, the remainder of Pahang to be classed as a 

 Gutta-percha reserve. By thus legalizing the collection of 

 Gutta in the border districts, the state could derive a revenue 

 from produce now removed surreptitiously. 



A. M. Burn-Murdoch, of the Indian forest department, has 

 now been appointed chief forest officer for the Straits Settle- 

 ments and the Federated Malay States, and his first work has 

 been an inspection of the Gutta-percha plantations in the Bukit 

 Taraah reserve, Singapore, on which he reports favorably. 



GUTTA-PERCHA FROM LEAVES. 

 The Agricultural Bulletin (Singapore) regards the collection 

 of Gutta-percha from leaves as a more wasteful and extravagant 

 method than any other, and one that will sooner exhaust the 

 supply wherever it is allowed. Under the system of felling 

 trees only for the Gutta-percha contained in the bark on the 

 trunks, many young trees escaped, on account of containing 

 too little gum to make it worth while to cut them. These had 

 a chance, later, to become mature trees, and to yield seed for a 

 successive growth, besides their product of Gutta. Under the 

 new system, however, young saplings an inch in diameter are 

 chopped down for the sake of the few leaves which cannot 

 otherwise easily be got at. " To suppose that native collectors 

 will, or would if they could, carry ladders in places where 

 Gutta-percha trees are found naturally growing, or that they 

 will pay any regard to the future supply, is absurd." 



To free rubber stoppers from taste, says the Druggists' Cir- 

 cular : " Cover the stoppers with water, add a few ounces of 

 burnt sugar, and let them soak for a few days, stirring once or 

 twice daily. After this treatment wash them and they are 

 ready for use." 



The king of England, it is stated, has decided to have his 

 motor carriages equipped hereafter with solid rubber tires, in- 

 stead of pneumatics. 



