October i, 1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



13 



GUTTA-PERCHA CULTURE IN JAVA. 



TO THK Editor of The India Rubber World ; It is 

 generally known that nearly all of the Gutta-percha now 

 use is obtained from the Dutch East Indies, being shipped 

 to Europe and America via Singapore. In order to gather the 

 product, it is necessary to fell the trees and to remove the 

 branches, as otherwise the sap would not flow freely. The trees 

 generally furnish but a small quantity each of Gutta-percha, 

 and their age, in the primeval forests, must be at least twenty 

 years, in order to yield sufficiently to pay for the work of cut- 

 ting them. 



Great numbers of these trees are destroyed every year, and the 

 natives are therefore compelled to invade the depths of the 

 forests to a greater extent. That the export nevertheless does 

 not diminish materially can be accounted for by the fact that 

 the forests cover immense areas. But, when the situation is 

 studied on small areas, as I did on the Island of Banca, the 

 utter disappearance of Gutta-percha within a few years begins 

 to appear inevitable. It will require many years before the 

 same area can be exploited again. Because some of the Pala- 

 quiiim sorts furnish sap only at a late period, and then in 

 small qnantities, the probability of their total extinction is 

 not an impossibility. 



The government of Netherlands India has for years past 

 considered ways and means to stop this wholesale destruction 

 of Gutta-percha, but that is not an easy undertaking. It is 

 possible to make forestry laws, such as to permit only the fell 

 ing of mature trees, but the laws in themselves avail nothing 

 unless the necessary personnel is employed to see that they 

 are enforced. 



In Dutch Guiana permits for the gathering of Gutta-percha 

 [Balata] are granted by the government, on the payment of \yi 

 cents per acre. In Germany the proper supervision and care- 

 taking of a forest costs only $1.50 per acre per year. In Su- 

 matra and Borneo the natives are exempt from this charge, 

 and from the foregoing it can be seen that it is impossible to 

 collect from the natives a tax sufficient to pay even one- half 

 the expense of a proper forest supervision. 



The only protection of the Gutta-percha industry from total 

 destruction doubtless is the cultivation of Guttapercha. 

 Plantations of Gutta-percha surely would be made on a large 

 scale in Java, if a sufficient profit could be derived from them. 

 It is well known that the quinine manufacturers draw their 

 supply mostly from the Java plantations, the forests of South 

 America furnishing scarcely 5 per cent, of the entire world's 

 production. The quinine culture of Java, when properly 

 attended to, is very profitable ; when there have been excep- 

 tions to this, it may be accounted for by the fact that there has 

 been too much produced. 



At present, no private planter of Java would cultivate 

 Gutta-percha, because the time for obtaining a yield from the 

 trees is too great, and the product too small, to make it profit- 

 able. This condition, of course, would be reversed if it should 

 prove to be a fact that the product extracted from the leaves 

 is lasting and of good quality. Of course the cost of produc- 

 tion must bear a proper relation to the prices at which the 

 product can be sold. 



A prominent Netherlands company is at present exploiting 

 the " Ledeboer " process, but inasmuch as the leaves have to 

 be transported from the forests, it is next to impossible to 

 guard against the dishonest methods of the natives, and it 

 would be advisable that the company form plantations, in 

 order that the sources of supply may be controlled. 



In the year 1883 the Netherlands Indian government caused 



a plantation to be made in West Java, under the superintend- 

 ence of Dr. W. Burck, assistant director of the botanical gar- 

 dens of Buitenzorg; this gentleman having made a study of 

 the Palaquium sorts in the primitive forests of Sumatra. 



A Gutta-percha plantation of Palaquium oiiongi/o/t'um, which 

 yields the best product, had already been made in Java by 

 Teysman in 1854, and from there the seeds were obtained. 

 There is great difficulty in obtaining seeds from the primitive 

 forests. The Palaquium oblongifolium grows very slowly in 

 West Java. Besides this tree there were planted in Tjepetir 

 /'. gutla, P. borneense, P. trenbir, P. trenbir var. paroifolium, 

 and Paycna Leerii, the seeds for which were furnished by the 

 older trees of the botanical gardens of Buitenzorg. 



Towards the end of the year 1890 these plantations passed 

 from the control of the botanical gardens to the bureau of 

 forestry ; they covered at that time an area of over 160 acres, 

 of which 100 were planted with Palaquium oblongifolium. The 

 cost, exclusive of the expense of supervision, had amounted to 

 $26 per acre. In most of the sections the young trees presented 

 a very unfavorable appearance, and the next few years were 

 devoted to improving them. The planting of nurseries was 

 difficult on account of the failure to obtain the seeds, and to 

 multiply gutta trees from slips and marcottas is a doubtful pro- 

 cedure. Exclusive of the cost of supervision, $80 per acre 

 have been expended within the past few years, and yet the 

 appearance of these gardens is in no wise imposing. As yet 

 these plantations have not yielded one cent's worth of product, 

 and the experimental tappings have given but little Gutta- 

 percha. 



The Indian government has petitioned the representatives 

 of the people, therefore, to furnish the necessary means for new 

 plantations, on a larger scale, in order that a more thorough 

 test may be made, in order that the government may keep 

 abreast of its task, as a colonial power. 



A. H. BERKHOUT, 



Wageringen, Holland, August iS, 1901 . Late Cor servation of Java Forests. 



Note.— The calculations of cost above are made upon the basis of American 

 gold. The generic term Palaquium^ used by Dr. Berkhout, is that commonly ac- 

 cepted in continental Europe, while English authorities designate the same genus 

 Dichopsis, and formerly described ic as (sonandra. By " marcottas " or morcottes 

 is indicated a method of treating twigs or shoots so as to cause ihem to send out 

 roots, after which the twigs are removed from the tree and planted in the ground. — 

 The Editor. 



THE FIRST INDIA-RUBBER RAFTS. 



IT is related by Sir Clements R. Markham, K. c. B., in one of 

 the volumes of the Proceedings of the Royal Geographi- 

 cal Society, that about 1852 there was developed at Cuzco a 

 strong interest in the subject of finding a water route toward 

 the Atlantic, to which end an exploring party was formed to 

 follow the river Amaru-Mayu, or Madre de Dios. The party 

 was made up of thirty-six youths from the best families of 

 Cuzco, under the leadership of Manuel Ugalde, a talented 

 young artist. Ugalde had conceived the idea of utilizing the 

 India-rubber of the surrounding forests in the construction of 

 a raft, which was done by preparing a number of waterproof 

 cylinders, by native processes, and securing them to poles which 

 formed the framework of the raft. Two such rafts were made, 

 but they came to grief through being dashed upon the rocks 

 below an unsuspected cataract. Ugalde had taken the pre- 

 caution to provide life belts made from the rubber he had pre- 

 pared, and the men were all saved. But the expedition had 

 been brought to a standstill, and the exploration of the river 

 was left for a much later date. This has since become an im- 

 portant rubber producing section. 



