March i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



183 



The News of Rubber Plantini 



THE INTEREST OF THE SCOTCH IN RUBBER. 



WHILE London naturally is the center of British interest in 

 rubber planting, the people of Scotland have been par- 

 ticularly attracted to this field of investment, and a 

 considerable number of British rubber companies have their 

 headquarters in Edinburgh. Not so long ago The India Rubber 

 World devoted a page to a sketch of Mr. H. K. Rutherford, who 

 probably stands first as regards the extent of his interest in 

 rubber planting among Britishers. Mr. Rutherford is a Scotch- 

 man and it is probable that his success in rubber has done much 

 to encourage his fellow countrymen to invest their capital in 

 the same business. The Scotch are proverbial as cautious in- 

 vestors, and the fact that people of that country have put so 

 much money into rubber is among the best indications that this 

 is a safe and sane business. 



The latest rubber planting enterprise organized in Scotland 

 is the Anglo-Sumatra Rubber Co., Limited, with £90,000 

 [=$437,985] capital authorized, and formed to acquire certain 

 coffee and rubber estates in Sum.atra, with the idea of making 

 rubber ultimately the principal product of the company. There 

 are now planted on the estates 157,214 rubber trees, of which 

 121,214 are Hcvca and the remainder Ficus elaslica. The direct- 

 ors of the new company are for the most part experienced in 

 rubber planting in Ceylon and Malaya, and the fact that they 

 are becoming jnterested in Sumatra is worthy of note as in- 

 timating the advantages which this island offers for rubber 

 culture as regards soil, climate, and labor conditions. It is to 

 be noted that the new company has been financed in Scotland. 

 The capital offered to the public was largely over subscribed. 



THE PROFITS OF RUBBER PLANTING. 



The London correspondent of The Times of Ceylon, mention- 

 ing the number of Ceylon men who appear in the British 

 metropolis evidently in particularly good circumstances, due to 

 successful investment in rubber planting, refers to one fortune in 

 this line, estimating on present share prices, of £250,000 [=$1,216,- 

 625], and he says there are others who would require an equal 

 number of figures to express the sums which they have taken 

 out of rubber. The correspondent mentions in this connection 

 Mr. Edward Valentine Carey, who has returned to England a 

 very rich man and has settled on a fine place in Devonshire, 

 having made a fortune in rubber after a period not so many 

 years ago when the world looked far from bright for him. The 

 India Rubber World devoted a page to a portrait and sketch of 

 Mr. Carey January i, 1905 (page 108). 



Mr. James Wilson, of England, chairman of the Ceylon Land 

 and Produce Co., on seven of whose plantations 5695 acres have 

 been planted to rubber, after a recent visit to Ceylon, expressed 

 the opinion that rubber planting will pay for many years to 

 come. He thinks that the price ought to rise a bit when the 

 money market resumes its normal condition, but not to the 

 high prices of a year ago. 



A planter from Ceylon who visited England lately reports 

 an interview had with one of the directors of the India Rubber, 

 Gutta Percha, and Telegraph Works Co., at Silvertown, who 

 expressed the opinion that rubber planting would be a good 

 investment for the next 20 years, at least. The rubber manu- 

 facturer felt that if rubber remains as cheap as now a marked 

 increase in its use would result. 



Referring to the value of rubber plantation property. The 

 Times of Ceylon suggests that iioo [=$486.65] per acre would be 

 a moderate price for si.x year old well-grown rubber. 



RITBBEH PLANTING IN THE DUTCH EAST INDIES. 



The Rubber Growers' Association, organized in London last 

 year under the chairmanship of Mr. H. K. Rutherford and men- 

 tioned from time to time in these pages, has extended its scope 



until it embraces committees not only for Ceylon and Malaya, 

 but also for Southern India, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. 



An association of planters has been formed at Bandjar, Central 

 Java, with a view to the extension of rubber cultivation through- 

 out that island. A late report was to the effect that with the 

 completion of planting then in progress there would be 9625 

 acres under Hevea in the Bandjar district alone by the end of 

 February, and it was estimated that 825 acres more would be 

 planted during the year. 



The number of rubber trees planted in Sumatra is estimated 

 by a correspondent of the Ceylon Observer at 2,000,000, repre- 

 senting about 14,000 acres. Three rubber trees 19 years old on 

 an old coffee plantation are reported to have yielded over 5 kilo- 

 grams [=11 pounds] each in one year. 



Another new flotation is that of The Langkat Sumatra Rubber 

 Co., Limited, with £75,000 [=$364,987.50] capital, registered in 

 London January 17 to acquire certain rubber plantations in 

 Sumatra and to plant additional rubber thereon. The prospectus 

 points out that i pound of rubber annually per tree, selling at a 

 profit of IS. 6d. per pound, would yield an annual dividend of 

 over 25 per cent. 



WHAT IS DOING IN MEXICO. 



The United States consul general at Mexico City, according 

 to the Mexican Herald, recently made a tour of the isthmus of 

 Tehuantepec, reporting the rubber planting interest there as 

 flourishing. It is stated that he made arrangements at three 

 plantations on which he found tapping in progress for details 

 as to results, with a view to embodying these in a forthcoming 

 official report. 



The Mexican Herald notes the presence in Mexico of a party 

 of officers and stockholders of the Ohio Rubber Culture Co. 

 (Canton, Ohio), on a visit to the company's plantation "Capocan," 

 adjoining the "Rubio" plantation of the Tehauntepec Rubber Cul- 

 ture Co. Mr. G. S. Pike, secretary of the company, reported 

 about 1,200,000 planted rubber trees on the estate, which number 

 it is planned to increase to 3,000,000. 



PLANTING CONDITIONS IN WEST AFRICA. 



Mr. John Hult, a leading shipping merchant of Liverpool, 

 who is interested largely in the West African trade, has written 

 some views on colonial development there which the government 

 has made public. He sug.gests the need for the scientific study of 

 the relative merit, from the cultural standpoint, of cotton, cacao 

 india-rubber, etc., under certain conditions, in order that the 

 natives (and white colonists as well) may be able to plant in each 

 case the best crop for which their location is suited. There are 

 places, he thinks, where the palm oil industry affords better re- 

 sults than any of the other crops mentioned, and in such places 

 he would regard it as a mistake to have the natives encouraged 

 to plant them, however desirable their cuhure elsewhere. 



EXTENT OF PLANTING IN MALAYA. 



The extent of rubber planting in the Malay peninsula to the 

 end of 1907 is estimated by Mr. J. B. Carruthers, the director 

 of agriculture for the Federated Malay States, at nearly 150,000 

 acres, as follows : 



Federated Malay States : 



Selangor 63.900 



Perak 47,300 



Negri Sembilan 15-600 



Pahang Qoo 



127,700 



Straits Settlements 16,000 



Johore 3.6oo 



Total 147,300 



These figures are accepted by the Ceylon Observer as fairly 

 accurate, and as equalling the extent of planted rubber in Ceylon. 



