478 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June 1, 1914. 



Cultivation of Rubber on the Malayan Peninsula. 



THE development of the rubber industry is without a parallel 

 in the history ot tropical agriculture, its only precedent, 

 that of iiuinine, having been carried out on a much smaller 

 scale. 



Up to the year 1898 all the rubber handled in commerce was 

 extracted from the trees or vines of tropical forests, principally 

 in South .-Vmerica and .\frioa, being collected by the natives for 

 shipment to Kurope. 



.-\ltho at first the idea of cultivating rubber was generally ridi- 

 culed, the industry has achieved a marked success within a 

 dozen years, having attracted capital to the extent of more than 

 $250,000,000. During that time immense areas of forest have 

 been converted into flourishing plantations, affording employ- 

 ment to a large number of Europeans, Javanese, Tamils and 

 Chinese, in clearing and planting the soil and preparing the 

 rubber. This great development has not only led to notable 

 progress in the science of tropical agriculture, but has brought 

 into prominence a part of the British Empire heretofore but 

 little known — the English possessions bordering on the Strait 

 of Malacca. 



Mr. H. N. Ridley, who was Director of Gardens and Forests 

 in the Straits Settlements from 1888 to 1911, has recently con- 

 tributed a comprehensive review of the rubber plantation in- 

 dustry to the columns of "La Hacienda." Quite a little of the 

 ground covered by Mr. Ridley is familiar to the readers of this 

 pul)lication, but even so it seems worth while to give a brief 

 digest of this interesting contribution. He refers to the fact 

 that the first Span- 

 ish invaders of 

 South America 

 early became ac- 

 quainted with the 

 uses to which the 

 natives were putting 

 the gum from the 

 rubber tree, and he 

 also refers to the 

 well known fact 

 that the first gen- 

 era! mention made 

 of rubber in Eng- 

 land referred to its 

 possible use for 

 erasing pencil 

 marks, a matter 

 brought to public 

 attention by Priest- 

 ley. 



At that time sta- 

 tioners retailed it 

 for 7s. 6d. ($1.82) 

 per cubic inch. Its 

 first use in connec- 

 tion with clothing 

 dates from 1820, 

 when Thomas Hancock took out his first patent for that pur- 

 pose, to be followed by Macintosh and Goodyear. Since then 

 improvements have rapidly been made in the utilization of rub- 

 ber, which now ranks among the most important and valuable 

 of the world's vegetable products. 



Concurrently with tliis demand, the sources of supply were 

 thoroughly investigated, and over 100 plants were discovered 

 which produced more or less valuable grades of rubber, in- 

 cluding : 



Courtesy of I. a Hacienda. B:fu:!u. 



TuEF.s Showi.vg Si'ir.al Syste.vi of 



SoiTu America. — Hevca, Caslilha, Ceara {ManihoD and 

 Mangalieira (Uaiicoriiia). 

 .\fric.^. — Laiidolf'hia and funtumia. 



Asia. — Picus ciastica, H'Uloughbeui. Urccola and vines of 

 less value. 



PROSPECT OF DEARER RUBBER. 

 For many years the natives penetrated the forests and col- 

 lected the rubber wherever it was to be found, in most cases 

 destroying the trees or vines. This method, by increasing the 

 e.Kpense of collection, rendered the business unprofitable, so that 

 there was a prospect of the price of rubber advancing to a 

 point which would preclude its use for ordinary purposes. 

 Hence, Sir Joseph Hooker, Director of the Kew Botanic 

 Gardens, induced the British government in 1873 to send an 

 expedition under Mr. James Collins to Amazonia after seeds. 

 FroiTi the few hundred seeds thus obtained, a dozen plants were 

 raised, which were sent to Calcutta, but all died, being imable 

 to withstand the climate. In 1876 Mr. H. A. Wickham was sent 

 to Amazonia to make another attempt, and succeeded in procur- 

 ing 70,000 seeds, which were transmitted from Kew to India 

 and Ceylon, and from which some 2,800 plants were obtained. 



It was then decided to utilize the Ceylon Botanic Gardens at 

 Peradeniya as a nursery for the plants, from which they could 

 be transferred to the various British colonies which afforded 

 prospects of successful cultivation. At that time a case of 

 plants was sent to the .Singapore gardens, then recently estab- 

 lished, but it having 

 Ijeen accidently de- 

 stroyed, a second 

 lot of 22 trees was 

 sent, and was 

 planted in 1877 with 

 good results, part 

 of them being sent 

 to Perak, Malay ' 

 Peninsula, w here 

 they were planted. 

 It is thought that 

 one of these trees 

 is the largest on 

 record in girth. 

 From these few 

 trees has developed 

 the plantation rub- 

 ber industry in all 

 countries. The Sing- 

 apore trees reached 

 maturity in 1881, 

 when seeds were 

 sent to Borneo and 

 elsewhere, and more 

 than a thousand 

 trees were planted 

 in forest form in 

 the Singapore gardens. Progress was also being made in 

 Ceylon, at the Peradeniya gardens, but on a lesser scale. 



In 1888 Mr. Ridley was appointed director of the Singapore 

 Botanical Gardens, and commenced the experimental tapping 

 of the Para rubber trees, samples being displayed in local exhi- 

 bitions, and distributed among those interested. Specimens sent 

 to London in 1891 were considered of good quality, and in 1899 

 some sheet rubber from the Perak trees sold in London at 3s. 

 lOd. (93.25 cents) per pound. This was the first cultivated 



T-APPIXC. M.\L.\YAN Pe.\1XSUL.\, 



