182 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January 1, 1913. 



Gardens, and in the same year shipped to Perideniya Gardens, 

 Ceylon. In 1877 a case of 22 plants reached Singapore and were 

 planted in the newly founded botanic gardens there. In the same 

 year the first Hevea trees arrived in the Malay States. It may 

 seem strange that these trees reached maturity many years be- 

 fore it was realized that they were capable of yielding a sufficient 

 quantity to make regular tapping profitable. The explanation 

 lies in the very poor methods of tapping pursued by the Malayan 

 aboriginals. In 1888 H. N. Ridley was appointed director of the 

 Singapore Botanic Gardens and immediately began experimental 

 tapping. In 1891 the first sample of plantation Para was sent 

 to London and favorably reported upon. The first actual sale 

 of Malayan rubber was in 1899, realizing Zs. \0d. a pound ; the 

 rubber was taken from trees 22 years old. The first rubber 

 planting on a commercial scale began in 1895. The slow develop- 

 ment of rubber plantations at the beginning was attributable to 

 lack of interest on the part of capitalists. Finally European 

 financiers became interested and by 1905 — 38,000 acres in Malaya 

 had been planted to Hevca, and from that time on the average 

 increase has been 70,000 acres per annum — the total acreage at 

 the end of 1911 being 542.877. 



Then came the boom of 1909 with much indiscriminate specula- 

 tion, comparable only in English history with the South Sea 

 Bubble of Queen Anne's time. But the legitimate rubber men 

 kept their heads and while the bubble was much deflated it did 

 not burst. 



The great advantage of the Malay Peninsula for rubber-grow- 

 ing is its regular rainfall. The Peninsula does not exceed 170 

 miles in width and it is the meeting place of the Northeast mon- 

 soon of the China Sea and the Southwest monsoon of the Indian 

 Ocean — both contributing liberally and regularly to the 

 precipitation. But while there is an abundance of rainfall there 

 are very few days in the year when it is too wet to work, and 

 this, of course, gives the planters in the East a great advantage 

 in a matter of collecting rubber over wild rubber gatherers on the 

 Amazon, where for several months of the year tapping has to be 

 altogether suspended. 



Another advantage of the Peninsula lies in its superior liealth- 

 fulness. This is attributable to the scientific investigations by 

 famous medical experts looking to the discovery and removal 

 of the causes of disease. The richness of the soil is an additional 

 attraction, and to this might be added that the success of the 

 industry is due — not a little — to the confidence inspired by an 

 absolutely honest and conscientious public service. The Planters' 

 Association of Malaya comprises 600 plantations with an invested 

 capital of £50,000,000, and an actual value of several times that 

 figure. 



In the early days of rubber cultivation the prevailing method 

 was that of interplanting Hevea trees through the old fields of 

 coffee. Then new jungle tracts were cleared and rubber and 

 cocoanuts were planted in alternate lines, but this necessitated 

 the destruction of the cocoanut trees in a few years' time to give 

 the rubber trees suflScient room. At the outset the Hevea seeds 

 were obtained from original stock and were quite expensive. 

 Now they are obtained from trees of all ages and the expense is 

 much less. In the hilly districts ordinary surface drainage is re- 

 quired, but near the coast land must be selected that can be 

 effectively drained and this often involves considerable expense. 

 In clearing an area for rubber the drains are laid out, the jungle 

 is cut down, and branches lopped to a level of about 4 feet. A 

 few weeks later the area is burned ; afterwards the unburned 

 branches and small trees are piled up and a second fire started. 

 This leaves some stumps and big trunks, but in three or four 

 years' time these have rotted and can easily be removed. Plant- 

 ing is done from seed or from stumps taken from the nursery 

 from 6 months to 2 years old. There has been much controversy 

 as to whether it is desirable to let the grass grow or to cultivate 

 some cover stock, but in the author's experience, clean weeding 

 followed by digging and plowing is preferable to any cover crop. 



The cost of production is an ever-interesting phase of rubber 

 planting, and planters are twitted over the difference between 

 recent actual costs and early estimated costs ; but there are rea- 

 sons for this. The boom of 1909 materially increased the cost of 

 rubber production, as the ad valorem export duties naturally were 

 higher ; while managers and assistant managers and even the 

 coolies all demanded a part of the great prosperity that had 

 come upon the planter. Moreover, many of the trees tapped 

 were young, which made the collection expensive. With the 

 return to normal conditions and the maturing of the trees, rub- 

 ber production has declined in cost, and will still further decline. 



The question of close or wide planting has been much dis- 

 cussed. One rubber botanist maintains that the trees should 

 be 40 feet apart, which would be only 27 trees to the acre. The 

 author's experience is against any such wide planting. Insect and 

 fungus diseases are easily kept under control. On the author's 

 plantations the loss does not average 2 per cent, from these 

 causes. 



In regard to the labor problem, which is likely perhaps to 

 present more difficulties in the future than it has in the past, 

 there is one obvious phase, namely that the Indian laborers are 

 more anxious for healthful conditions than for extremely large 

 pay, and that they will avoid plantations reputed to be unhealth- 

 ful, nothwithstanding tempting wage rates. But the Chinese and 

 Japanese laborers on the contrary, are willing to risk ill-health 

 for better pay. 



Some consideration has recently been given to the question 

 of fertilizers in Ceylon, though little has been done in this direc- 

 tion in Malaya except where the soil is particularly rich in 

 humus, where lime has been supplied to correct the acidity. The 

 author believes that for some years to come, at least, systematic 

 cultivation of the soil will prove more valuable than any sort of 

 fertilizer. 



Another question that is always uppermost is that of future 

 supplies of rubber. The author has seen fields that produced 

 from 800 to 900 pounds of rubber per acre, but this yield is 

 abnormally high. In his opinion a fiVst-class plantation may be 

 expected to yield an average of 500 to 600 pounds per acre. His 

 estimate of the total acreage now under cultivation (including 

 the 500,000 acres in Malaya) is 1,000,000 acres. His estimate of the 

 production of plantations for the year ending 1912 is from 

 25.000 to 30,000 tons. The annual increase will be fairly steady, 

 and in about 1918 the annual production of plantation rubber 

 should be 100,000 tons — or equal to the entire consumption of the 

 world at present. The present outlook is that consumption will 

 fully keep pace with production, so that there is no imminent 

 struggle between plantation and wild rubber. 



The future of the planter depends entirely upon the activity of 

 the manufacturer, and it is reasonable to expect that there will 

 be a constant demand for rubber in lines of manufacture already 

 open, and that in addition many new uses will come into vogue. 

 A well-managed, favorably-situated and mature plantation can 

 at the present time, produce rubber with a handsome profit at 

 60 cents a pound. Planters can guarantee an enormously in- 

 creased supply of rubber and will in future years be content with 

 a much lower price than now prevails. What interests the plant- 

 ers is to know whether with a larger increase in their output 

 there will come a glut in the market in a scramble to sell, or 

 whether the manufacturers will be able to take care of this 

 constantly increasing supply. 



THE COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OF SYNTHETIC 



RUBBER. (Abstract.) 



By Lothar E. Weher. 



THE possibility of converting isoprene into a rubber-like 

 substance has been known for twenty years, but little 

 progress has been made in developing this knowledge until 

 quite recently, owing to the vast proportions of this prob- 

 lem. The synthesis of rubber, however, received a new im- 



