592 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August 1, 1914. 



which if man should cat he would surely die. It is the upas- 

 tree of Java. 



This hcwildcring assemblage of beauty and marvel would well 

 justify its existence if it served no further purpose than the 

 information and delight of tlie visitor, liut for the benefit of 

 the grouchy utilitarian it may be said that tliey Iiavc added many 

 millions (now we have him interested!) to tlic wealtii of the 

 world and there is scarce a household in civilized lands to which 

 their benelits have not penetrated. Tea was imported into Ceylcm 

 for a thousand years. No doubt small, unsuccessful and for- 

 gotten attempts at its culture were made, but not until Pera- 

 deniya, by scientific and careful experiment, had shown the way. 

 was the tea plant more than a curiosity. In 1875 a little less 

 than three hundred pounds were exported. Now the produc- 

 tion is two hundred million, twice the amount consumed in the 

 whole Lhiited States. How much this means to the planters in 

 Ceylon and the patient, humble workers df that land may be 

 partly appreciated, but what it means to the millions of tea 

 drinkers of the world, particularly amon.u: the pour, is beyond 

 human computation. 



The cultivation of cinchona is another illustration of wdiat 

 the botanic stations may accomplish. In the late seventies the 

 culture had begun, but the commercial supplies still came from 

 the bark of wild trees, harvested by the usual destructive meth- 

 ods. Supplies of quinine sold for ninety dollars a pound and 

 people sickened and died because they could not pay the price. 

 Now thousands of tons of the life-saving bark come from plan- 

 tations of the east and the drug can be purchased at retail in 

 New York for thirty-live cents an ounce. 



But it is with the production i>f ruliber that the most commer- 

 cially important work of the botanic stations of Ceylon, Singa- 

 pore and the east generally has been concerned. In showing how 

 recent is the cultivation of rubber-producing plants perhaps the 

 most impressive fact wdiich may be cited is that in De Candolle's 

 "Origin of Cultivated Plants," revision of 1884, not a single 

 rubber plant was considered worthy of mention in the list of 247 

 species, though careful attention and exhaustive details were 

 given in the case of such staples as skirret, rampion, quinoa. 

 fenugreek, alexanders, sweet-sop, sour-sop and ,goId-of-pleasure. 

 Ten years later saw the world unconvinced. Rubber importers 

 scofifed. The forests were inexhaustible. Consumption would 

 never catch up with supply. Reputable writers, scientists and 

 practical rubber men declared that rubber plantations were an 

 economic failure. Misguided planters peevishly cut down their 

 trees, replacing them with other crops, and this fact was trum- 

 peted to the world. But the patient, clear-headed men at the 

 experiment stations went on with their work. With sure and 

 large vision they saw the enormous magnitude of the prize for 

 which they were contending — not for themselves, but for their 

 country and the world. They sent to America for plant.s — 

 Hevca, Castilha. Manihot. Foolish men ! exclaimed the critics. 

 Do they not know that those trees will not grow outside of 

 their original habitat? 



It seems that the foolish men at the botanic stations did not 

 know anything of the kind. They went on planting, cultivatin.n. 

 tapping .md testing, distributing trees and plants, until imw 

 thirty-eight years after the first trees were planted, a million 

 and a half acres are set with the trees wdiich "would not grow." 

 and the product of the Malay States plantations alone is greater 

 than was the whole world's production of rubber at the time 

 the first experiments were being made. It seems certain that 

 within a very few years the plantations of the east will furnish 

 by far the largest part of the world's rubber supply. 



Such has been the work of a few men of intelli.gencc, imagina- 

 tion, conscience and energy, working mostly for salaries less than 

 that of the chief cook in a modern hotel. W'liile their critics 

 were giving dire reasons why it never could be done these men 

 were learning the requirements of tlie plant, placing it under 



the right sky, in the right soil and at the right elevation ; they 

 were testing every possible mode of culture and recording the 

 results, noting failures as calmly as they noted successes; apply- 

 ing the science of chemistry to the product, making and testing 

 the goods the world w(juld want. They are still at their tasks 

 in their quiet laboratories and gardens, still adding to the 

 wl^rld's knowledge and the world's wealtli and training the 

 clear-eyed and clear-brained young men who are to come after 

 them; while their erstwhile critics in far off lands are riding 

 above tires made from the rubber they declared could never be 

 grown. 



If we consider the condition which the world would be facing 

 if its supply of this indispensable article rested with those in 

 control of the native forests; when we think of how the con- 

 cessionaires would be calling for their pound of flesh and oil 

 second thought declaring that they must have two pounds; of 

 the governments planning for more and more revenue and 

 coticticting schemes of monopoly and "valorization"; when we 

 think of the continued destruction witliout replacement and a 

 narrowing supply in the face of a growing demand, we realize 

 something of what is due to the modest scientists who made 

 possible the supply which stands between the manufacturers 

 and the certain famine which would now be at hand. 



In every land the policy of the stations is adapted to the facts 

 which must be faced. In some parts of Africa the ca.sygoing 

 natives could never be induced to undertake plantations, and here 

 they are skilfully persuaded to make each for himself a small 

 planting in the forest near his own hut. They are taught less 

 destructive methods of tapping; they arc protected from exploita- 

 tion anil encouraged to become regular producers who will be 

 more and more efficient as the years go by. All over the world 

 the combined resources, learning and effort of the botanic estab- 

 lishments of the British Empire are directed to the task of 

 teaching mankind how to profit in pleasure and wealth from the 

 boundless treasures of the vegetable world. The man who dis- 

 covers a gold mine does a poor and paltry thing compared with 

 that done by the man who shows how an acre of ground can be 

 made to yield pleasure and wealth for the succeeding genera- 

 tions of all the ages that are to come. 



In America the botanic estalilishments are scattered from 

 Canada to the Falkland Islands. There are twelve in the West 

 Indies, or fourteen if Trinidad and Tobago be so classed. That 

 of Jamaica has been in existence since 1779. 



.\ number of file botanical gardens in the West Indies and 

 (iuianas have been described in considerable detail and illustrated 

 by photographs in the accounts contributed to The Ixni.A Rubiikh 

 World by its editor or published by him in his book on the 

 tropics. .Ml of these botanical gardens, with the experiment 

 stations usually conducted in conjunction with them, are under 

 the management of botanical experts sent out from England, who 

 as a rule are not only men of scientific attainments, but good organ- 

 izers and well ei|uipped for their varied executive duties. They take 

 a profound interest in their occupation and work with the greatest 

 diligence year after year to achieve substantial results. 



In Jamaica there are two notable gardens and an experiment 

 station. They have devoted much attention to rubber-producing 

 trees, the J/n'Cus, Caslilloas, Sapiuiiis and their own rubber 

 vine, the l-orsliii>iiiii. There is an interesting garden in Antigua, 

 where a great variety of rubber trees has been tried in an ex- 

 perimental way, the MiiniJuits especially having been carefully 

 studied. 



In Trinidad there is a wonderful garden and a splendid ex- 

 periment station. Here are also the oldest and best specimens 

 of llrTca, Ciistilloii and Piiiiliiiiiui in the West Indies. Tobago, 

 which is really a part of Trinidad, has done much with Caslilloas 

 In British (iuiana, at Cieorgetown, there is a notable botanical 

 garden, and many experiments have been tried in the planting 

 of llcrca. CasHlloa and Sat'um. 



