64 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November 1, 1911. 



Rubber Planting in the Middle East. 



An Analysis o£ the Prospects of the English Companies Based on Carefully Prepared Statistics. 



WITH the recent development of Asiatic rubber cultiva- 

 tion, it has been difficult to form a typical or aggregate 

 idea of the results achieved, and of the yield to be antici- 

 pated in the future. A step in this direction is the interesting 

 statement of Messrs. Gow, Stanton and Wilson, of London, 

 lately reproduced by the Home and Colonial Mail of that city, 

 in tlie form of "Particulars of 55 rubber producing companies in 

 Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, Borneo, Java and Johore." 



Two questions of interest are suggested by this statement: 

 What are the results shown for the 55 companies indicated? 

 And further, what proportion do these results bear to those 

 of the much larger number of companies not included in the 

 list? 



NUMBER OF COMPANIES. 



In dealing with these points, it is first necessary to define how 

 many rubber companies are operating within the limits named. 

 The "Rubber Share Handbook" includes about 500 companies, 

 of which about 350 are in Southern Asia. The remaining 150 are 

 divided between Africa and America, but this figure cannot be 

 considered as representing the proportionate importance of rub- 

 ber cultivation in the last-named continents, much of which is in 

 private hands ; while the 350 companies operating in Asia prob- 



from 8 per cent, of those in other parts of Southern Asia, must 

 necessarily be misleading. Such, liowever, is not the case. The 

 real test is the proportion of such figures (when upon a suffi- 

 ciently typical scale) to the total output. Owing to the relatively 

 larger number of Malay companies reported upon, as compared 

 with those in other parts of Southern Asia, the consideration 

 of the details quoted from 43 of the first-named class (apart 

 from the other 12), will throw light upon the question of future 

 Asiatic rubber supplies from that direction. 



OUTri'T OF SELECTED C0MP.\NIES. 



Taking the figures of production recorded for 1910 in respect 

 of these 43 companies as about 8 million pounds, there would be 

 left for the 150 smaller companies about 4 million pounds to 

 make up the total of about 12 million pounds claimed to have 

 been produced last year. Hence the records of these 43 cor- 

 porations may justly be regarded as representing the output of 

 the companies at present in a productive condition. 



ESTIMATED RETURN ON CAPITAL. 



On two points the dissection of the figures will be found of 

 special interest, one affecting the past and the other the fiit'jre 



Hevea Rubber in Grass, Then Cleared as the Shade Became Hevea Trees Planted in Jungle in Poor Soil, Singapore Gar- 



OgjjSE. DENS— Never Weeded or Attended to. 



ably cover the extent of Asiatic production, which is largely con- 

 trolled by incorporated companies. 



Geographically divided, the following distribution is shown for 

 the Asiatic companies: 



Total companies Companies in 

 in Rubber Gow, Wilson & 



Share Handbook. Stanton's list. 



Malay States 193 43 



Ceylon 97 7 



Borneo, Sumatra, etc 60 S 



350 55 



At first sight, it would seem that any figures based on returns 

 from only 20 per cent, of the number of Malay companies and 



The aggregate paid-up capital of the 43 companies equals nearly 

 30 millions of dollars. On this capital, 8 million pounds of 

 rubber (worth under normal conditions about $8,000,000 to 

 $10,000,000) would not represent a very large annual return, 

 after deducting expenses of cultivation and distribution; so 

 that a further increase of profits is naturally dependent on the 

 gradually higher productiveness of the plantations now under 

 cultivation. 



number of trees. 



With regard to this question, the first point to consider is that 

 this 1910 yield of 8 million pounds was evidently furnished by 

 the trees now ranking as "6 years and upward," and which 

 had presumably conmienced to yield rubber last year. These 

 trees now number 1,371,215. 



