September i, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



407 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON AND THE MALAY STATES. 



As Seen by The Editor of " The India Rubber World." 



SIXTH LETTER— CONCLUSION. 

 Rubber Plantations at Klang, in Selangor. — Mr. Bailey and his 

 Work. — Distance of Planting. — Age at Which Hcvta Trees Yield. 

 — The Labor Question. — Mr. Carey's Planting, — The Chinese as 

 Rubber Planters. — The Selangor Rubber Co. — Return to Singa- 

 pore and Departure for I long Kong. 



DURING the night spent on the Sappho, on the trip from 

 Singapore to Selangor, we passed through a succes- 

 sion of heavy showers, but the sea was smooth and it 

 was cool enough to be fairly comfortable. The meals 

 aboard the boat were also good, and the native servants as in- 

 telligent as it paid them to be. At 8 the next morning we 

 stopped at Port Dickson, where there is a good harbor, with 

 an iron pier and a few bungalows and native houses set down 

 in the jungle. After discharging freight we left, following the 

 coast about three miles out. The land was low, wooded down 

 to the water's edge with an occasional break where a river dis- 

 charged its muddy flood into the clear water of the Straits. 



In due time I reached Port Swettenham, where a short rail- 

 road journey took me to 

 Klang. The station master 

 then told me that I could safely 

 trust the rickshaw man to take 

 me to Mr. W. W. Bailey's 

 bungalow, where I had been 

 invited to make my headquar- 

 ters. He evidently knew the 

 name, for he grinned, said 

 " Bailee," and started off. Far 

 out into the country he took 

 me, perspiring profusely, but 

 keeping steadily at it. On the 

 way we passed considerable 

 plantations of Hevea, which I 

 examined with interest. Final- 

 ly he stopped at a gateway and 

 pointed out a hillside bunga- 

 low and again said " Bailee " 

 and intimated that he was 

 ready to be paid. I did not quite share his confidence, however, 

 and insisted that he accompany me up to the house, which with 

 some reluctance he did. And it was lucky that I did so, for it 

 soon developed that this was the bungalow of the plantation 

 superintendent, who was absent, the house being in charge of 

 the native servants. Not speaking much Malay and they know- 

 ing no English, it was a bit difficult for me to make them under- 

 stand what I wanted, but finally one of them mounted a bicycle 

 and, inviting us to follow, led us back to Klang, and up to the 

 real Bailey bungalow. The house was most beautifully situated 

 on a slight eminence with beautiful palms, foliage plants, and 

 flowers in its gardens, and a view in the distance of the lofty 

 istana of Selangor's sultan. 



I was at once cordially welcomed by Mr. Bailey and his beau- 

 tiful wife, and entertained most delightfully. The next morn- 

 ing we drove over the road that I had traveled twice the day 

 before, and went thoroughly over both Lowlands and High- 

 lands estates. After stopping at the bungalow of the superin- 

 tendent, from which we had a fine view of acres of Hevea, we 

 drove by the coffee mill, and the coolie lines to the extreme 

 end of Lowlands, where the very last planting had been done. 



ISTANA OF THE SULTAN OF SELANGOR. 



This was in alluvial soil divided up into parallelograms by 

 drainr. that were 4 to 5 feet wide and from 3 to 6 feet deep. 

 The soil was wonderfully rich and was not planted with Hevea 

 seeds but three foot stumps, as the seeds and the tender shoots 

 have so many animal and insect enemies that stumping is far 

 more successful. These stumps are nursery plants cut back 

 into the brown, set out carefully and never shaded. Not only 

 is the top cut bark, but the tap root is shortened a bit to pre- 

 vent doubling, and the laterals are also trimmed a little. 



This planting is done in any month of the year when the 

 rains are on. In preparing the ground holes are dug 15 to 18 

 inches in diameter and about the same number of inches deep, 

 the hole being left open for two weeks, after which a little of the 

 surface soil is scraped in. Then the plant is set and carefully 

 covered in. The trees that are ready for tapping are selected, 

 not by their age but from their size. For a general rule any 

 Hevea that is 3oinches in circumference 3 feet from the ground 

 is large enough to produce rubber. In a plantation in a good 



location in this part of the 

 world the trees mature about 

 as follows : At the end of the 

 fifth year about 25 per cent, 

 will be large enough to tap ; 

 at the sixth year there will be 

 50 per cent., and at the seventh 

 all of them should be big 

 enough. 



Speaking again of the drain- 

 age system at Lowlands, it was 

 marvelously complete, all of 

 the channels leading into the 

 great agricultural drain that 

 ran through the middle of 

 the plantation, and which I 

 believe was a government en- 

 terprise. 



In examining the plantation 

 we walked over good paths by 

 the side of the drains, crossing them on tree trunk bridges, and 

 ended by driving over two very good roads that led to the 

 very heart of the planting. The oldest rubber on Lowlands 

 was some 500 acres of five year old trees, numbering 52,000. 

 These had been later interplanted with another 52,000 of vary- 

 ing ages. There was also 120 acres of two yearold trees, 18,000 in 

 number. The largest five year olds that I saw were 27 inches 

 in circumference, 3 feet from the ground, and were in a lot that 

 were planted 20 X 2 ° feet. Speaking of distances observed in 

 planting. Mr. Bailey had tried many experiments. He had plots 

 14X14. 14 X 28, 14 X 42, 20 X 20, and 24 X 24 feet. The latter 

 plantings were almost all interplanted later with Ficuselastica. 

 There was also considerable coffee in with the rubber, and as it 

 happened to be of an especially fine quality it at that time was 

 paying all of the expenses of the planting and care of the rubber. 

 The laborers were a mixed lot, being Tamil, Chinese, and 

 Javanese coolies. The Tamils are rather hard to get but are 

 fairly good laborers ; the Chinese coolies are good rough labor- 

 ers but are not the equal of the Javanese. As there is a glut 

 of labor in Java there is a likelihood that the planters in the 

 Malay states will be able to get many of them, and as they all 



