686 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July 1, 1920. 



NETHERLAND INDIES NOTES. 



RUBBER ACREAGE IN THE DUTCH EAST INDIES, 



AXF.RY CARKFUi. IN'QUIRV into ihc acreage devoted to rubber in 

 the Dutch East Indies in the year 1918 has been made by 

 the Trade division of the Department of Agriculture, Industry 

 and Commerce ("Landbouw, Nijvcrhcid en Handel"), Nether- 

 lands India officially is divided into tvifo parts, "Java and Ma- 

 dura" and "the Outer Possessions," which latter include Sumatra, 

 Borneo, Celebes, New Guinea and the lesser islands of the East 

 Indian archipelago. The investigators, for scientific reasons, dis- 

 tinguished between the estates devoted to rubber alone and those 

 which raised mixed crops, and also took account of the different 

 kinds of rubber trees planted. The ti.surcs follow, areas being 

 given in hectares : 



Number IIeve.^ 



OF Planted Propuctive Br.\- Ficus Mani- 



EsTATES. Areas. Areas. siliensis. Elastica. hot. 

 I. Planted With Eublier Only. 



Siva 76 28,629 20.940 28,041 427 161 



utside >161 109,398 76,571 108,703 695 



II. Ruljber and One Other Crop. 



Java 50 11.390 5,696 10.239 634 517 



Outside 50 21,802 13,481 20,829 973 



III. Rubber and Two Other Crops. 



Java 11 1,001 388 953 34 14 



Outside 10 4,715 2,021 4,484 231 



IV. Rubber and Three or More Other Crops, 

 Java 6 343 4 97 231 14 



V. Mixed Crops, 



Java 250 79,727 25,414 



Outside 63 16.323 5,332 



^122 on east coast of Sumatra. 



Of the above number of estates with mi.xed crops, there were 

 152 in Java and 39 in the outside possessions which had areas 

 planted to rubber only. The figures for these pure rubber 

 acreages were : 



Nl-MBER Hevea 



or Planted Productive Bra- Ficus Mani- 



F.sT\TFS. Areas. Areas, siliensis. Elastica, hot. 



Java 152 31,923 22,572 29.298 2,440 190 



"Outside 39 14,307 9,324 13,278 1,029 



Totals of Tables 1-V, 



Java 393 121,100 52,442 38,330 1,326 706 



Outside- 284 152,238 97.405 134,016 1,899 



Dutch East 



Indies 677 273,338 149,847 172,346 3,225 706 



The average size of an estate devoted solely to rubber was 



376.7 hectares (930.45 acres) in Java and 679.5 hectares (1,678.4 



acres) in the outside possessions. Wild rubber, jelutong, gutta 



percha and the like are not included in the survey, which deals 



purely with cultivated plantation rubber. 



FAR EASTERN NOTES. 



THE MARKET for bicycle tires in Japan is probably greater 

 than in any country of equal population. Not many 

 Japanese can buy automobiles or motorcycles, but nearly every 

 one can afford the cheap bicycles made in Japan. The imports 

 of tires, which amounted to $519,330 in 1913, were $559 in 1918; 

 the cause is iht cheapness of the domestic article — the cheapest 

 tires cost $2.65 and the dearest $6.50, while imported tires must 

 pay a duty of $42,75 on 100 pounds. 



The Japanese rubber plantations in Malaya are chiefly in the 

 State of Johore and are about 93,803 acres in extent. 



Burma's exports of rubber during the war years and since 

 have been as follows: 1919, 4,149,242 pounds, valued $1,520,935 

 American money; 1918, 2,634,380 pounds ($1,381,943); 1917, 

 2,301.157 pounds ($1,425,244); 1916, 1,285,984 pounds ($995,611); 

 1915, 987,392 pounds ($632,594). Of this 67,365 pounds, valued 

 $13,659, were sent directly to the United States in 1919, and 

 76,246 pounds ($46,623) in 1918. 



Motor trucks are coming into general use in Singapore to 

 convey plantation rubber from wharves to stores or from one 



go-down to another. Auction sales are made .subject to de- 

 livery within two days, which makes trucks almost a necessity, 

 as the bullock carts arc slow and carry only limited loads. 



."K Norwegian company, the Norsk Sumatra Co., with a capital 

 of 1,800,000 kroner, has undertaken rubber planting in Sumatra. 



The oldest rubber plantation in Cochin China was started in 

 1897, but the large estates date only from 1907. At present there 

 are 49,400 acres planted in Cochin China and about 2,470 acres 

 in the rest of Indo-China; the area is increasing by about 2,500 

 acres a year. The soil and climate are suitable, labor is plenti- 

 ful, but capital is lacking. 



Ceylon proposes to forbid the importation of all Hevea seed 

 itom any part of South America, owing to reports that leaf dis- 

 ease is common on the Amazon, as well as in Surinam and 

 British Guiana, where it has practically killed rubber growing. 

 In this it follows the lead of the Federated Malay States, 

 which have prohibited the importation of seed from British 

 Guiana since 1917. The leaf disease was brought to Surinam 

 from Brazil about ten years ago. 



Rubber in the Sultanate of Brunei in British Borneo is the 

 chief crop raised for exportation. The business has been in a 

 critical condition since 1918, owing partly to the fall in the price 

 of rubber and partly to the lack of labor. The Brunei native 

 is a good worker, but he takes to fishing or to work in the 

 woods rather than tilling the soil, and, further, does not like to 

 go far from home. The future of rubber depends on the impor- 

 tation of labor, coolie or other, from abroad. 



The Selangor Rubber Co., one of the pioneer British rubber 

 companies in the Malay peninsula, is now 21 years old. In 1899, 

 when the bicycle boom was in full swing, but more than twenty 

 years after Wickham had brought the Hevea seed from Brazil 

 and Hooker and his assistants had demonstrated how well it 

 could grow in Ceylon, Malaya and Southern India, the company 

 took up 200 acres planted with trees one year old. It now 

 possesses about 2,700 acres and fifteen years ago owned nearly 

 twice as much land. It has turned out over seven million pounds 

 of rubber, worth £1,140,000. 



British North Borneo exported 8,801,795 pounds of rubber in 

 1919, being 50 per cent more than in 1918. 



New Zealand expects to provide asbestos for its own needs 

 from native sources. Large deposits of asbestos and of French 

 chalk exist at Takala in Nelson province and also near Matueka. 



A British combination of tire manufacturers is planning to 

 build a tire and rubber goods factory at Howick in Natal and 

 to amalgamate with itself the South African Rubber Manufac- 

 turijig Co., of Johannesburg. It will be a year before they can 

 get to work as the machinery must be sent out from England. 



From an estate of 107 acres in Selangor (Federated Malay 

 States), the Tremelbye Rubber Company reports a yield of 705 

 pounds of rubber per acre for 1919. 



AFRICAN NOTES. 



I.N Southern Nigeri.\ many of the Para rubber trees planted 

 under government supervision have reached tapping age. In 

 the Benin district 250,000 Hevea trees have been planted. The 

 export for 1918 amounted to 352,504 pounds, most of it Para 

 rubber. 



Rubber in Uganda is displacing coffee on some plantations; 

 11,255 acres, with coffee as a side crop, have been planted with 

 Para trees by European owners. The exports of rubber in 

 1918 were 253,063 pounds, valued at £12,893; in 1917 they were 

 108,336 pounds, worth £9,867. The natives also have planted 

 some Para and a considerable quantity of Ceara. 



In Italian Somaliland the raising of Manihoi glaziovii has 

 begun. 



Former German East Africa exported in the fiscal year 1918-19 

 344,700 pounds of rubber, worth 164,534 rupees. 



