856 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



August 1, 1921 



This is particularly alarming at present because the disease 

 is caused by a fungus by which neighboring estates could easily 

 be infected, and further, although the Pests Enactment makes it 

 punishable for estate owners or managers to fail to combat the 

 disease, the enactment would be of little use now. Owners who 

 had to abandon their estates and had no money to treat pink 

 disease, would not be able to pay the fine for not doing this work. 

 The Department of Agriculture is trying to locate all abandoned 

 areas with a view of supervising them and dealing with any out- 

 break of pink disease. 



SMALL HOLDINGS 



For various reasons small holdings are attracting a good deal of 

 attention and statistics regarding the acreage of holdings having 

 an area of less than 100 acres should be interesting. 



The following figures for 1919 were published in The Agricul- 

 tural Bulletin of the Federated Malay States: 



Holdings Less Than 100 Acres in Extent 



Acreage Acreage in Number of 



planted bearing trees tapped 



p-„.. 182,117 101,773 15,266,015 



c!|" • : 128,721 78,580 12,185,350 



N«r. Se^bilan 73,901 30.331 4,549,650 



Pahang .:.:'. 24:287 8,688 1.303.200 



jo,aIs 409,026 219.372 33,304.215 



The number of trees, as a rule, has been calculated at the rate 

 of 150 trees per acre. 



CEYLON 

 At a recent meeting of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce the 

 following resolution was almost unanimously adopted : 



That on sale of spot rubber, that is, rubber sold for delivery 

 within one month, brokerage be 1 per cent. 



On sale of rubber on forward contract, J4 per cent. 



This item had been : , „a/i j 



On sale of rubber on invoices up to and including 1,000 pounds, 

 1 per cent. 



Invoices over 1,000 pounds, J^ per cent. 



THE NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES 



In February of this year a meeting was held, under leadership 

 of the Director of .Agriculture, with representatives of various 

 banks and of tea and rubber interests, when a committee was 

 formed to study the question of aiding estates. Through the 

 efforts of this committee an ."Vgricultural Loan Bank will be 

 established which will aid worthy estates by loans, and if neces- 

 sary, temporarily acquire and exploit estates. 



Creditors of these estates will be required to postpone their 

 claims until the bank loans have been paid. Furthermore, at- 

 tempts of creditors to acquire plantations at prices below their 

 actual value will be prevented by the bank through its right to 

 acquire temporarily such property. 



The Agricultural Loan Bank will be capitalized at 1,000,000 

 gilders (normally, $400,000) ; private parties have already largely 

 promised cooperation, hut the bank will rely chiefly on moral 

 and material support of the Government which has guaranteed 

 financial assistance to a certain ma.ximum yet to be fixed and 

 which also takes upon itself responsibility for any losses the bank 

 may sustain. 



JAVA RUBBER TRADE IN 1920 



Reports concerning Java's trade in rubber and rubber goods 

 show that the imports of bicycle tires in 1920 amounted to 643,505 

 pieces against 196,067 in 1919 and 265,960 in 1918. Automobile 

 tires showed a smalter but steadier increase, the figures being : 

 104,616 in 1918, 200,906 in 1919 and 247,663 in 1920. 



Exports of rubber during the year under review totaled 30,000 

 metric tons (2,204.6 pounds ^= 1 metric ton) as compared with 

 ;<5,000 metric tons in 1919. Shipments to the United States, which 

 went direct, showed a decrease, being 12,000 metric tons against 

 18,700 metric tons in 1919. 



The lowest prices for standard crepe and standard sheet ob- 

 tained during December, 1920. when the rates per half-kilo fell 



below 50 and 40 cents. However, even at these low prices, most 

 of the Java estates were able to sell their product without loss 

 as the cost of production in Java is generally around 35 cents a 

 pound. 



SUMATRA ESTATES CLOSING DOWN 



The situation in Sumatra and particularly on the East Coast is 

 gradually getting worse. The Japanese estates appear to be the 

 hardest hit, although the American concerns are also in diffi- 

 culties. The number of plantations closing down is increasing. 

 Many estates are stopping the separate administration of their 

 various plaritations and are uniting them as far as possible. 



Of course, the rate of unemployment, both European and coolie, 

 is growing as well as the number of estates that are cutting 

 salaries. Thus far only one Dutch concern has lowered salaries, 

 all the other firms being foreign. 



RUBBER EXPORTS FROM SUMATRA 



According to data furnished by the Commercial .Association of 

 Medan, exports of rubber from the East Coast of Sumatra dur- 

 ing 1920, amounted to 32,695 tons, against 38,368 tons in 1919. 

 The value of exports in 1919 was 88,692,620 gilders and in 1920. 

 57,522,425 gilders, which is a decrease of 35 per cent. Exports 

 for the first quarter of 1921 totaled 6,428,149 kilos. On this basis. 

 the entire exports for 1921 would amount to 25,712,592 kilos 

 which, it is estimated, would be 10,000 tons less than the produc- 

 tion for the year. 



DISTRIBUTION OF RUBBER PLANTATIONS IN DELI 



The Commercial Association of Medan gives the following 

 interesting figures regarding the crops for 1920 and the areas 

 planted and producing by December, 1920. 



Area Planted Area Producing Crop 



Hectares Hectares Kilos 



Dutch 45,685 27,261 9,625.942 



British 42,335 32,105 12,540,254 



Dutch East Indian 10,556 6,080 2,029,363 



American 25,356 17.731 6,321,880 



Belgian-French 17,084 13,319 4,630,948 



Japanese 3,410 1.110 381.231 



German 1,726 1,658 859,078 



Swiss 1,422 816 303,836 



Shanghai 2,075 926 291,928 



Totals 149,649 101,006 36,984,460 



Below follows a comparison of the percentage of area in pro- 

 duction and the annual yield per hectare. 



Kilos 



Percentage Per Hectare 



German 90.20 518 



Belgian-French 77.96 348 



British 75.84 391 



American 69.93 357 



Dutch 59.67 353 



Dutch Easl Indian 57.60 333 



Swiss 57.45 371 



Shanghai 44.59 316 



Japanese 32.55 343 



A review of the various cultures shows that English capital 

 is mainly invested in tea and rubber ; French-Belgian capital, in 

 rubber and palm oil ; Dutch capital is prominent in all cultures ; 

 Dutch East Indian, in rubber and copra, while American and 

 Japanese capital is invested only in rubber. 



THE NETHERLANDS INDIES RUBBER FACTORY 



The annual report of this company shows that the year 1920 

 was more favorable than previous years. A good deal of money 

 was spent on new machinery and extensions in the buildings. 

 In 1920, all of the new machinery ordered had not yet arrived 

 and work had to continue with the old and small installation. 

 In spite of this, output showed a 30 per Cent increase over that 

 of 1919. 



The capital has been raised by 100,000 gilders to 550,000 gilders 

 because of expansion of the factory buildings and the need for 

 new machinery. In spite of the expenses incurred through experi- 

 ments with solid tires amounting to 15,048.86 gilders, the accountf 

 showed a favorable balance of 25,138,97^, gilder.* 



