December 1, 1912. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



141 



endeavor to compile a detailed statement of the acreage of rub- 

 ber in the Philippines, respecting which the data liitherto avail- 

 able are insufficient. 

 The climate being the finest in the Far East, the Moro Province 



Government believes it has the best rubber-growing country in 

 existence and predicts a brilliant future for Philippine rubber. 

 Moro Province, it will be recalled, is the most important center 

 of Philippine rubber cultivation. 



Rubber-Growing in the Philippines. 



By Richard Artliur. 



IN 1906 the value of plantation rubber exported from the 

 Middle East was $1,250,000. Last year it was about 

 $30,000,000. In the near future there is no doubt whatever 

 that it will run up to $100,000,000. 



"The romance of plantation rubber," says H. Kerr Ruther- 

 ford, formerly Chairman of the London Rubber Growers' Asso- 

 siation, "is the old, old story. A few resolute men working in 

 Eastern jungles, having faith in the ultimate success of the 

 work they had undertaken : hampered by want of capital, but 

 undismayed by the carpings of the pessimists, they doggedly 

 forged ahead to their goal. Some of the pioneers did not live 

 to see the fruits of their labor, but many have been fortunate 

 in bringing in their sheaves, and a host of outsiders, although 

 never having seen a rubber tree, have, from the persevering ef- 

 forts of these men, reaped a harvest where they had not sown." 

 The growing of rubber — "the exciting business of running a 

 tree dairy," as someone has called it — is one of the greatest 

 agricultural opportunities in the world today. The English have 

 got a flying start in this venture. English agricultural science, 

 English commercial activity and English capital are largely re- 

 sponsible for the creation of the vast rubber plantations which 

 have come into being in the Malay States, Ceylon, Borneo and 

 the Dutch, East Indies. Lately considerable American capital 

 has also been invested in rubber planting in these Eastern coun- 

 tries. But even now the United States is comparatively timid 

 and backward in this respect. And yet this country has an 

 enormous rubber field waiting to be planted — the Philippines. 

 Here are millions of acres of public lands eminently suitable 

 for rubber growing, that may be leased or purchased at a small 

 figure. Labor is not difficult to find, and catch-crops can readily 

 be grown on the same land while the owner is waiting for the 

 rubber trees to mature. 



A serious mistake was made, some years ago, in planting a 

 large number of Ceara trees in the Philippines. Experience has 

 shown that these are liable to damage by wind, and it is now 

 an accepted fact that the best possible rubber tree for plan- 

 tation purposes is the Hevea Brasiliensis. There is no hard 

 and fast rubber belt as some experts claim, for the authorities 

 concede that almost the whole extent of the Philippines has 

 climatic and soil conditions favorable for rubber. Trees grow 

 in the vicinity of Manila with the same luxuriance that they 

 show in Mindanao and the islands of the Sulu Sea. In fact, rub- 

 ber is being grown in Singalpng, an experiment station in Manila, 

 and across Manila Bay in Bataan province is the Abucay rub- 

 ber plantation where two-year-old trees are now 20 feet high. 

 In the island of Basilan are the Basilan Rubber Plantation Com- 

 pany, which has harvested rubber, and the San Rafael Rubber 

 Company, whose trees are making a record for growth. 



From Manila to Basilan is 600 miles in a direct line, and it is 

 absolutely proven that all this area, at least, is rubber land, since 

 rubber is growing healthily at its extremities. 



Rubber growing in the Philippines is no longer an experiment ; 

 several of the existing companies are ready to tap, and one or 

 two of them are already exporting rubber. Some of those 

 whose trees are ready for tapping refuse to stop their work of 

 planting, saying that the trees they are planting now are more 

 of an asset than the small amount of revenue that present tap- 



ping would yield. They are working for a large output in the 

 future rather than to make a present small profit. 



In Mindanao, the Basilan Rubber Plantation Co. has produced 

 and exported crude rubber for about three years. The San 

 Raiael Rubber Plantation Co. have over 20,000 rubber trees, some 

 of them large enough to tap, and they are planting out another 

 100.000 seeds and seedlings. Near Nueva Caceras in Ambos 

 Caniarines province.Mr. R. Richmond has a Para rubber planta- 

 tioti of 10,000 trees,. four years old, that are doing splendidly. The 

 Abucay Rubber Plaintation Co. near Abucay, Bataan province, 

 have 40,000 Para rubber trees two years old, and they have 

 planted and are planting 100,000 more from the nursery. The 

 Lapac Plantation Co. on one of the southern islands near Jolo, 

 has a hopeful growth of rubber trees nearly ready to tap. Two 

 companies, financed by Seattle capital, have been organized to 

 plant rubber in Davao ; and American and English residents 

 of Manila have formed the Baco River Plantation Co., which 

 this year planted 65,000 seeds in its nurserj- in Mindoro, This 

 company has brought an expert from the Straits Settlements to 

 manage its enterprise. 



Wherever the trees in the Philippines are of an age suitable for 

 tapping, the yield of rubber, says the government expert, is equal 

 in quality to that obtained in the most favored localities in the 

 East. ,' } 



Besides having tnaintaincd for several years a conservative in- 

 terest in tlie rubber industry in the Philippines, and having pub- 

 lished numerous technical articles on the subject, the Bureau of 

 Agriculture in the Philippines has arranged to distribute to the- 

 proper centers some 50,000 Para seedlings ; these young plants 

 will be put out under the direction of the Bureau, and will be 

 carefully watched until well established. It is believed that none 

 of the dangerous fungus diseases which aft'ect rubber in other 

 countries have been introduced into the Philippines along with the 

 seeds, which were obtained from Malaya. Xearlj' all districts of 

 the Philippines, with the exception of Mindanao and some of the 

 southern islands, are subject to a dry season, but the Bureau of 

 Agriculture believes that in many otherwise unfavorable localities 

 the soil about the roots of the young seedlings can be kept suf- 

 ficiently cool by the new system of leguminous "blanket crops," 

 thus preventing injurious packing and baking by the sun. Many 

 of the failures that have been experienced with young Para 

 seedlings have been due to the neglect of the planters to furnish 

 this necessary protection to the roots. Many of the planters 

 have only recently learned in the expensive school of experience, 

 that there is a tremendous difference in this connection between 

 grass and plants of the legume family : grass roots excrete 

 poisons which injure the roots of the rubber, whereas legume 

 roots furnish a concentrated form of nourishment with no draw- 

 backs or dangers whatever. 



To all actual and prospective rubber planters in the Philippines, 

 the Bureau of Agriculture extends the "glad hand," and stands 

 ready to advise and to assist them as much as possible in *^' 

 matters of site location, seed, plantings and general culture. 

 With this valuable assistance and the experience of planters in 

 other eastern countries to guide them, the planter of rubber in 

 the Philippines has a first rate chance of obtaining a hish de- 

 gree of success. 



