14 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October 1, 1911. 



Some Notes on Rubber Planting. 



RUBBER PROGRESS IN THE MALAY STATES. 



'T'lIE government director of agriculture in tlie Malay States 

 recently sent out his report for tlie year 1910. It is a docu- 

 ment that must prove most encouraging to the rubber planters 

 in that part of the world as well as most interesting to people 

 elsewhere interested in the progress of this industry. 



The rubber output for the Federated Malay States for the 

 year 1910 was 12.563.220 pounds, an increase of over 100 per 



A 30-VKAR-()i.ii Para Tree in Singapore, Showing Tapping; Dr. 



Henry N. Ridley, Director of the Royal Botanical 



Garden of Singapore, Standing at the left. 



cent, over the output of the preceding year, and nearly four 

 times as great as that of 1908. The director makes the follow- 

 ing exceedingly optimistic prophecy for the ne.xt five years. 

 He estimate.s the increase for the present year over last at 

 10.000,000 pounds; the increase for 1912 at is.OOO.OOO pounds; 

 for 1913. KS.OOO.OOO pounds, and for 1914 20,000,000 pounds. 

 He estimates in the absence of any untoward accidents that 

 by 1916 the entire output from the Malay Peninsula will be 

 130,000,000 pounds on the present acreage alone, not taking into 

 consideration the product from any new acreage. 



In point of acreage there was an increase last year of 48,813 

 acres against an increase of 28,905 acres in 1909. The total 

 acreage planted in rubber at the end of 1910 in the Federated 

 Malay States was 245,774 acres, an increase of 25 per cent, 

 over the preceding year. The director speaks of the great 



variation in the price of rubber during the year 1910, prices 

 ranging in the Malay States from $2.30 to $1.14, but even at 

 this low price there was a very consoling margin of profit, as 

 he estimates the cost of producing rubber at 36 cents a pound. 



Some very helpful suggestions are made in the report, in- 

 tended primarily for rubber planters in that section, but un- 

 doubtedly of interest and probably of value to rubber planters 

 in other parts. The matter of growing other crops on the 

 rubber plantation during the early years of the trees is dis- 

 cussed in some detail. These crops are divided into two classes 

 — catch crops and cover crops. By catch crops are meant all 

 those crops that are planted primarily for revenue to pay or 

 help to pay the expenses of the plantation while waiting for the 

 rubber to mature. The principal crop of this character in the 

 Malay States is coffee, but evidently experience has shown that 

 these revenue producing crops are not altogether profitable, as 

 the percentage of plantations where they are to be found was 

 only 6 per cent, in 1910, as against 10 per cent, the preceding 

 year. The disadvantage of these catch crops lies in the fact that 

 when they have served their purpose they must be wholly ex- 

 tirpated ; otherwise their roots breed robt diseases which at- 

 tack the rubber trees. 



The only object of the cover crop is to keep out the weeds 

 until the rubber trees are sufficiently advanced to effect this 

 result, but experience has shown that weeding is preferable to 

 a resort to any cover crop unless possibly one of a leguminous 

 nature like ground-nuts, which will not only keep out the weeds, 

 but will also bring in some revenue. 



On the subject of tapping the report, in spite of the many 

 new inventions, still recommends the simple tools, the gouge 

 (straight or bent) and the farrier's knife, wdiich have hitherto 

 been in vogue. Much stress is laid upon the necessity of avoid- 

 ing improper tapping, especially cutting through to the wood, 

 and the suggestion is offered that wherever such cuts are made 

 in the tree, that they be painted with cold coal tar not only to 

 save the tree from the attacks of wound-fungi and borers, but 

 also to make these instances of bad tapping conspicuous, and 

 therefore more likely to be avoided in the future. 



The report on the whole is certainly an encouraging docu- 

 ment, and if the director's prophecy of 130,000,000 pounds of 

 rubber for the Malay States in five years' time comes true and 

 rubber is selling anywhere near its present price at that time the 

 outlook for the Malay planters is indeed bright. 



LARGELY INCREASED EXPORTS OF MALAY RUBBER. 



Not only the aggregate exports of plantation rubber from the 

 Federated Malay States for the first seven months of 1911, form 

 a record as to quantity, but there has been a separate record 

 achieved for each month. The totals for the period named during 

 the last three years was respectively : 



1909 Pounds 2,998.428 



1910 6,248,260 



1911 9,931,390 



PLANTING IN SUMATRA. 



It is reported that in consequence of the efforts of the General 

 Rubber Co., of New York, to rapidly develop its recently acquired 

 Sumatra holdings, the pay of Japanese coolies has advanced to 

 the equivalent of $46 to $48 per head against $32 to $36 a year 

 or two ago. 



A BOOK for rubber planters- 

 the Tropics." 



-Mr. Pearson's "What I Saw in 



