May 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



393 



if tlie local Legislature which controls the ''money bags" will let 

 him. He will, in all likelihood, have the cordial support of the 

 Secretary of State, who, in his despatch, stated: "His Majesty 

 is pleased to approve of the appointment of Sir Walter Egerton, 

 Governor of Southern Nigeria, to be Governor of British Guiana. 

 I am glad that resolution recently passed by Combined Court 

 with regard to emoluments of the office enabled me to recom- 

 mend to His Majesty the King for this important post an officer 

 whose administration has produced such striking results in de- 

 veloping the resources of Southern Nigeria. — Harcourt." 



BO.'KRD OF AGRICULTURE— INCREASED DEMAND FOR RUBBER 



SEEDS. 



At a meeting of the Board of Agriculture, held on March 25, 

 attention was drawn to the fact that the price of rubber plants 

 for sale had been altered. The Director of Agriculture pointed 

 out that this was necessary, as they had received orders for 

 about 100,000 plants more than previously. Orders had been 

 sent to the Straits Settlements for 150,000 Para rubber seeds 

 for the next five years ; hitherto, they had been able to get 60,000 

 only. He pointed out the importance of knowing what trees 

 they were getting the seeds from, as by importing casually they 

 might get seeds from trees that gave excellent yields of seeds, 

 but which did not yield rubber in great quantities. The depart- 

 ment was going to select a system of testing packages of Para 

 rubber seeds to determine the rate of germination, etc., and get- 

 ting the necessary certificates. This increased demand for 

 plants betokens an increased interest in the culture of rubber. 

 The Bartica Agricultural Estates, Ltd., for instance, now has 

 a large acreage cleared ready for planting. 



THE BARTICA AGRICULTURAL ESTATES— .\RRIVAL OF A 

 P.\RTY OF STOCKHOLDERS. 



On April 1 Mr. Lindley Vinton, treasurer of the Bartica .\gri- 

 cultural Estates, Ltd., arrived in Georgetown from New York 

 on the Q. L. S. Parmia with a party of seven stockholders. The 

 party left for the estates on April 2, and returned on April 5. 

 In an interview, Mr. Vinton stated that the company has ordered 

 a complete plant for the preparing of sisal, which commodity is 

 now ready for harvest. The machinery will be shipped from 



A MILLION ACRES OF PLANTATION RUBBER. 



Eighteen-Months-Old Hevea, "The Hills" B.G. 



New York. They were going ahead with their rubber cultivation 

 and would this year increase their rubber cultivation from 600 

 to 1.000 acres. 



WHILE estimates affecting other parts of the world are 

 necessarily more or less approximate, the figures available 

 with regard to Asiatic rubber plantations are sufficiently exact 

 to afford a basis of calculation. 



In a recent issue the "Revue Internationale," after discussing 

 the various items of which it is composed, put forward an es- 

 timate of the surface planted in Asia with rubber, of 826,541 

 acres. 



By a detailed comparison of this estimate with the recent 

 figures of Mr. D. Milton Figart, United States Vice-Consul Gen- 

 eral at Singapore (published by The India Rubber World, 

 January 1, 1912, p. 161), the following results are shown: 

 ESTIMATED RUBBER ACREAGES, 1910. 

 Revue Inter- 

 nationale. 



Malaya 362,853 



Ceylon 238,822 



Java 106,664 



Sumatra 80,000 



Netherlands India (Java & Sumatra) 



India and Burma 26,202 



Borneo 12,000 



Cochin China 



Mr. Figart. 

 362,853 

 241,885 



150,000 

 43,525 



11,000 



Total 826,541 



809,263 



The first estimate, while higher than others which have re- 

 cently appeared, is considered by the writer of the article to fall 

 short of the exact conditions. 



With regard to Africa, it is added that the cultivation of rub- 

 ber is extending, there being in the German East and West 

 African colonies and in the French colonies several thousand 

 hectares (of 2.47 acres) planted with Funtumia, Ceara and Hevea 

 part of the trees being in a productive condition. 



In Mexico there are, it is stated, 100,000 acres planted in rub- 

 ber. The acreage in British Guiana is stated to be 1,700 acres, 

 of which 1,000 are in Hevea alone. In Dutch Guiana there are 

 said to be 800 acres in Hevea Brasiliensis, 17 plantations being 

 engaged in the cultivation of this variety. Trinidad and Tobago 

 have, it is added, 2,300 acres under cultivation, planted with about 

 85 per cent, of CastUloa, 11 per cent. Hevea, and 4 per cent, of 

 Funtumia. 



Taking as a basis the French estimate for Asia quoted above, 

 and adding to it the figures given for the other parts of the 

 world, the result would be approximately as follows : 



Acres. 



Asia 826,541 



Africa (say) , 10,000 



Mexico, etc. (say) 100,000 



British Guiana 1,700 



Dutch Guiana 800 



Trinidad and Tobago 2,300 



Total 941,341 



These figures applying to 1910 and being, moreover, avowedly 

 incomplete, it is evident that by allowing for 1911 even a normal 

 amount of new planting, the "million acres in plantation rubber" 

 which has been spoken of has possibly been already exceeded. 



In its concluding sentence the article thus deals with the gen- 

 eral question of plantation vs. wild rubber: 



"Plantations may therefore seriously compete with the produc- 

 tion o^ wild rubber ; but the contest, while becoming keen, is not 

 destined to cause wild rubber to disappear, if its production is 

 rationally conducted, if the methods of extraction correspond 

 with the physiology of the trees, and if . . . replanting takes 

 place under conditions of natural vegetation." 



