Jl-NE 1. 1914. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



479 



Para rubber sold in the markets of Europe. Nevertheless, it 

 was difficult to interest land owners in the future of rubber 

 cultivation. The discovery of extensive areas in Africa pro- 

 ducing; l.oiidolj'hia and funtuiiiia kept down the price of rubber, 

 but it was evident that the destruction of Laiidalf'liia in .Africa, 

 and tlie signs of reduction in tlu- .\mazonian yield indicated the 

 prospective in- 

 sufficiency of w-ild 

 rubber to meet the 

 requirements of the 

 market, which the in- 

 creased use of rulj 

 her tires was devel 

 oping. Still, the land 

 owners of the Malay 

 peninsula devoted 

 themselves to plant- 

 ing coffee, it being 

 apparently impossible 

 to interest them on 

 more than an experi- 

 mental scale in the 

 future of the rubber 

 industry. 



DK\KI.OI>MKNT OF 

 RUHBER. 



Finally, the fall in 

 the value of coffee 

 and the advance in 

 the price of rubber 

 ( due to the growth 

 of the automobile in- 

 dusti^' in 1898), at- 

 tracted the attention 

 of landowners, and in 

 a few years an activ- 

 ity of an unprece- 

 dented character was displayed in the cultivation of rubber. In 

 Ceylon a certain number of magnificent trees at Heneratgoda 

 furnished seeds both for the requirements of the island and for 

 export to other colonies, particularly to the Federated Malay 

 States, the the old trees in Perak furnished a supply of seeds 

 for that state. The first important areas opened to the new 

 cultivation were in Selangor, near Port Swettenham. On both 

 sides of the railway between that port and Kuala Lumpur (the 

 capital) coffee rapidly disappeared, and was replaced by Para 

 rubber. The forests vanished, and many districts of the penin- 

 sula, which had previously been scarcely visited by the white 

 man, became the home of flourishing rubber plantations. Roads 

 and railways increased, new populations were formed, labor was 

 imported from nations of workers, Europeans were urged to act 

 as directors and assistants, and botli commerce and wealth in- 

 creased. 



OTHEP TKOPJC.M, COUNTRIES. 



This activity rapidly extended to other parts of the tropics, 

 seeds and plants being distributed among the various botanical 

 gardens, especially those in the British colonies. More than 

 10,000,000 seeds and plants have been distributed from the Sing- 

 apore gardens alone, and likewise a large number from Ceylon. 

 Among the points to which seeds have been sent from the Eng- 

 lish possessions in Malaya and Ceylon are : 

 Africa. — Liberia, Nigeria, Uganda and Seychelles Islands. 

 Asia. — Burma, Assam, Southern India, Sumatra. Borneo, Java, 



Christmas Island. \ew Guinea. China, Cochin China. Japan. 



and Siam. 

 .\ustralia. — Fiji, Samoa. 

 America. — Guiana, Honduras, West Indies. 



'■■. ; ^•■' *• 



V:'- l^-*-»'i 



Courtesy of La Hacienda, Buffalo. 



A Well Kept Rubber Plant.\tion, M.\lav.\n Peninsul.a. 



In some cases the attempt has been a failure, but in the 

 greater number important rubber plantations have been de- 

 veloped, this enormous industry having arisen from 22 plants 

 sent to Singapore in 1S77. and from 2,000 sent to Ceylon, of 

 wliich only 70 were alive in 1899. No record exists of any sub- 

 ■^eci'iiiU iiniiMrtati'.n ..f jilants frr,:n .\ma7onia. Neither has cul- 

 tivation reached its 

 hmit, there being 

 still immense areas 

 at both sides of the 

 railway which trav- 

 erses the Mala y 

 l>eninsula, destined to 

 be covered with this 

 valuable tree. Nor 

 should Para rubber 

 alone claim the atten- 

 tion of investors, 

 which should also be 

 directed to the other 

 kinds to which refer- 

 ence has been made. 

 It is true, however, 

 that none of them has 

 attained the same 

 commercial import- 

 ance as Para rubber, 

 in rapidity of devel- 

 opment, value of 

 p r o duct, and the 

 facility with which it 

 is i)repared. Practi- 

 cally none of them 

 has developed well in 

 the Fast Indies, altho 

 Ccara has been 

 grown with more or 

 less success in the 

 mountainous regions of Java and in Southern India. 



I'icus clastica was long cultivated in Sumatra. l)ut on ac- 

 count of the irregularity of its production has proved to be 

 unsatisfactory. On the first tapping it gives a considerable 

 quantity of latex, and less the second time, gradually diminishing 

 the yield until it ceases. It then needs a rest of several years 

 before producing more rubber. This peculiarity, Mr. Ridley re- 

 marks, has led to the disappearance of its cultivation in the 

 East. To use his own words : 



"Practically the great future of rubber is in the cultivation of 

 /-/I'lvo Brasilicnsis, wdiich produces not only more and better 

 rubber, but is easier to cultivate, and sooner attains the right 

 dimensions for tapping. No doubt, for some time at least, part 

 of the rubber of commerce will be derived from wild sources. 

 . . . But none of these other rubbers has the value of Para. 

 nor can they take its place." 



With regard to wild Amazonian rubber, the opinion is ex- 

 pressed tliat the expense of its production and transport will 

 necessarily limit its yield. On the other hand, good plantations 

 of Para can produce it at a price leaving a fair profit, altho 

 the latter may be less than what is paid the collectors in Ama- 

 zonia for collection and carriage to the nearest port. Plantation 

 rubber has the advantage of being cleaner than wild rubber, and 

 of being more readily brought into the shape required by the 

 manufacturer by the help of machinery, which cannot be used 

 in the forest. 



AnV.W'IACES OI- THE M.\I..\Y.\N PENINSUF-A. 



After comparing the success of plantation rubber in other 



parts of the world, Mr. Ridley remarks that the best results 



have been obtained in the Malayan peninsula, where there is an 



extensive area of alluvial jdain with a steady rainfall through 



