November i, 1907] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



45 



A Leading Rubber Planter. 



THE portrait on this page is that of Mr. H. K. Rutherford, 

 of London, chairman of the Rubber Growers' Associa- 

 tion recently formed in that city. The objects of this 

 association, by the way, are to promote the mutual consideration 

 and discussion of all questions affecting the members as persons 

 interested in or connected with the growing of rubber, par- 

 ticularly in the Far East, and to watch over and protect such 

 interests, and to do all such other lawful things as are incidental 

 or conducive to the attainment of these objects. The occasion 

 seems appropriate for placing before the readers of The India 

 Rubber World a brief summary of the work of one of the leading 

 men now engaged in the cultivation of rubber. 



Mr. Rutherford went out to India in i86g and was engaged 

 there and in Ceylon for many years as a civil engineer, in the 

 construction of railways. Like many Scotchmen, however, he 

 was not afraid of turning from the procession in which he had 

 been trained and devoted his talents into a field where he saw 

 greater opportunities for success. His first venture in tropical 

 agriculture was in the growing of cinchona 

 which in the "eighties" promised a rich re- 

 ward to those who ventured into it. These 

 hopes, however, were not realized, and 

 although a few planters did well at the 

 start, the whole industry, in a few short 

 years, died out, and at this time no cin- 

 chona or quinine bark is grown in Ceylon 



The subject of our sketch then ventured 

 into what, in those days, was the some- 

 what speculative course of opening up land 

 in the low country of Ceylon for tea, in 

 connection with a few other engineers wlm 

 were partners with him in the railway con- 

 tracts. Success crowned the venture ami 

 the lands they then opened up, and after- 

 wards acquired or amalgamated, now form 

 what is known as the premier tea company 

 of Ceylon, viz., the Ceylon Tea Plantations 

 Co., Limited, with a £248,460 [==$1,209.- 

 130.60] capital paid in. Mr. Rutherford 

 has been chairman and managing director 

 of this company practically from its incep- 

 tion. It has paid regular dividends of 15 

 per cent, for the last twenty years. Added 

 to its magnificent tea estates it has now some 2000 acres planted 

 with rubber and its iio shares stand in the market at £36. The 

 company's production of tea in 1906 was 4,671,371 pounds, besides 

 other crops. 



Mr. Rutherford was early in the field in planting rubber in the 

 Federated Malay States, and has considerable interests there and 

 in Java and Ceylon in various rubber concerns. He is chairman 

 of the Bukit Rajah Rubber Co., Limited ; The Federated ( Se- 

 langor) Rubber Co., Limited; The Seafield Rubber Co., Limited, 

 and The Batu Caves Rubber Co., Limited. He is also a director 

 of The Pelmadulla Rubber Co., Limited; The Java Rubber and 

 Produce Co., Limited; The North Hummock (Selangor) Rubber 

 Co., Limited, besides being interested in several other companies 

 dealing in tropical produce, including an important coffee growing 

 company in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on whose estate some 

 400 acres have been planted to rubber this year. Several of the 

 rubber companies named above are harvesting rubber, the Bukit 

 Rajah estates alone having yielded 118,982 pounds last year. It 

 may be added that some of the rubber planted among the tea by 

 the Ceylon Tea Plantations Co. is also now in tapping. 



Mr. Rutherford is 61 years of age and ear!}' in the present 



Rutherford. 



[Chairman of the Rubber Growers' .\ssociation 

 ^London), .mid of important rubber and tea 

 plantir.g companies.] 



year made a trip to Ceylon and the Federated Malay States. On 

 that occasion he visited every property with which he was con- 

 nected, and was thereby able to inform the shareholders in the 

 various companies exactly how matters stood on each, and also 

 to instil a degree of confidence among them which probably few 

 other directors could have done. Mr. Rutherford's views on 

 the capabilities of the East with regard to the future of rubber 

 have been expressed in his many utterances and writings, and 

 have from time to time been given to our readers of this journal. 

 He is a firm believer that Eastern planters will in time be able 

 to successfully compete against all comers in the various markets 

 of the world, owing to the fact that labor is so much cheaper 

 there than in other rubber producing countries. Java he expects 

 to be the cheapest producer, Ceylon next, followed by the Fed- 

 erated Malay States. Having been so long, however, connected 

 with tropical agriculture and seen its many vicissitudes, he does 

 not shut his eyes to the fact that the unexpected may happen in 

 rubber also. The risk of disease to the trees of the Hevea variety, 

 owing to the species not being indigenous 

 to the Eastern hemisphere, the risk of labor 

 troubles when the vast areas planted and 

 being planted come to the producing stage, 

 and the possibility of a substitute for rubber 

 being discovered must all be weighed up 

 and taken into the consideration of any one 

 embarking in the industry. 



The office of the secretary of the Rub- 

 ber Growers' Association, it may be men- 

 tioned here, is at i, O.xford court. Cannon 

 street, E. C, London. 



PLANTING MISCELLANEA. 



Dr. J. C. Orcutt. writing from the Unca 

 "La Luisa" to the Mexican Investor, notes 

 the result of measuring 30 four year old 

 Castilloa trees, at two different dates. On 

 May 27 last their- average circumference 

 was a fraction over 21 inches ; on August 

 8 they averaged just 3 inches more, or 

 i-i inches. Dr. Orcutt says the trees were 

 four years old (from seed) about July I, 

 and he estimates their average girth on 

 that date at 225-^ inches. 

 The schools of instruction in rubber es- 

 tablished by the government of French West Africa for the 

 benefit of the natives, have been referred to in this journal. A 

 recent decree provides for their extension to the colony of French 

 Guinea. There are two periods of instruction yearly: (i) In 

 rubber planting and culture, during June and July; (2) in the 

 tapping of rubber trees, coagulation, and preparation for market, 

 during October, November, and December. At the end of 

 the second period the rubber collected is sold and the proceeds 

 divided among the pupils. 



Recently an illustrated lecture on rubber culture in Mexico was 

 given before a large audience in London by Mr. Alfred Berry, 

 of the Chilean Exploration and Development Syndicate, Limited, 

 which controls, it is stated, some important rubber enterprises 

 in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. 



Vacuum driers are being offered to the rubber planters of the 

 Far East having a capacity up to 330 pounds of wet rubber at a 

 charge. 



A Ceylon newspaper, reporting the settlement of the estate 

 of a local planter lately deceased, prints an inventory of his 

 property, including 538 shares, in no less than five large rubber 

 planting companies. 



