June i, ipcS.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



289 



The Progress of Rubber Culture. 



PROFITS OF THE ANGLO-MALAY COMPANY. 



THE business reports of the Eastern rubber plantation com- 

 panies which have reached the stage of paying dividends 

 are filled with so much detail as to render them much 

 more informing than is true of public companies as a rule. We 

 have devoted space already to some of the details of the Val- 

 lambrosa estate reports, and now are in a position to give some 

 figures of interest regarding The .^nglo-Malay Rubber Co., Lim- 

 ited, also in the Federated Malay States. By the way, in the 

 absence of views of the latter company's properties, there is 

 introduced here a typical view of a plantation of Para rubber 

 (Hcvea) owned by the Vallambrosa company, with the idea that 

 one such plantation is very similar in appearance to another. 



The Anglo- Malay company collected in 1907 from 68,236 trees 

 224,778 pounds of rubber, or an average 

 of 3.29 pounds per tree, for which the 

 average price realized was just over 

 2S. gd. [=91.2 cents], after deductiim 

 of all freight and selling charges. The 

 dividends for the year, at the rate of 

 20 per cent., amounted to £24,825 

 [=$120,810.86], or about 53'^ cents for 

 each pound of rubber handled, although 

 the average price realized was 29 cents 

 a pound less than in the year before. 



On the company's principal estate, 

 "Terentang," 28,043 trees, in their eighth 

 year, yielded 105,655 pounds of rubber. 

 or an average of 3.76 pounds per tree. 

 During the preceding fourteen months 

 the average yield of these trees was 

 about 1.68 pounds. In other words, the 

 rate of yield was more than doubled 

 during the year. The cost of tapping 

 and curing on Terentang estate averaged 

 about 13^ cents per pound, taking the 

 whole year into consideration. During 

 the last half of the year, however, the 

 cost was just over I2y2 cents. The rub- 

 ber thus appears to have netted nearly 

 80 cents a pound, since the report would 

 indicate that the Terentang estate prod- 

 uct realized about 92.4 cents. 



The company's income is charged with 

 the upkeep of a large acreage of rubber 

 not yet old enough to tap, and the cost 

 of last year's new planting, so that the 

 dividends by no means represent the 

 entire profit of rubber production for the year. The expenditures 

 during the year for upkeep, new development, buildings, machin- 

 ery, etc., totalled $87,893.85. Presumably much of this will not 

 have to be repeated, while the trees tapped last year are expected 

 to yield considerably more in 1908. Besides, there are yet nearly 

 half a million trees to come into bearing. All of which would 

 seem to point to comfortable dividends on Anglo-Malay shares, 

 even if rubber should fall even below present prices. There 

 were recent transactions in the company's fully paid shares at 

 3'A times their par value. 



OTHER FIGURES OF YIELD AND COST. 



The Seremban Estate Rubber Co., Limited, in the Malay 

 States, collected Inst year 109,055 pounds of rubber, against 62,258 

 pounds in igo6. The cost of the rubber and laying it down at 



Colombo averaged a fraction less than 38 cents, whereas in 1906 

 it was S2J4 cents — a notable decrease. The year's working netted 

 39 per cent, on the capital, and dividends amounting to 33 per 

 cent, were paid, against 24 per cent, in 1908 and 5 per cent, 

 in 1905. I 



At the third annual meeting of the Batu Caves Rubber Co., 

 Limited (London, April 24), the chairman, Mr. H. K. Ruther- 

 lord, said that even if the price of rubber should fall to 

 I shilling 10 pence [=44.6 cents] per pound, this estate would 

 appear to be capable of yielding a profit equal to 30 per cent, 

 on the capital. 



A planter in Pcrak writes to the Troficat Agriculturist of the 

 discovery on his place of 70 planted Hczca rubber trees, of which 

 he has no history, and which were never tapped until last 

 (Jctrbcr. In February he reported that 

 ihey had yielded over 700 pounds of 

 i.ne rubber and 50 pounds of scrap, and 

 were still being tapped, with no indica- 

 tion that the trees were being injured in 

 ■ luv wav. 



if 



"^ >, -m ■ "^i f .5.'-. - 



L. 



Cl'I.tiv-\ted 'IIevea" RLcnnk. 



[\'allambrosa Estate, near Klang, Federated Malay 

 States.] 



PLANTING INTERESTS IN MEXICO. 



At the last session of the Rubber 

 Planters' Association of Mexico in Feb- 

 ruary last, it was resolved to hold the 

 next meeting somewhere on the isthmus 

 of Tchauntepec during the coming sum- 

 mer, to arrange for which a committee 

 was appointed, consisting of James C. 

 Harvey, A. B. Coate, L. A. Ostien, V. O. 

 Peterson, and W. C. Gruels. A pro- 

 gram is being arranged for such meet- 

 ing for the latter part of July, at Rincon 

 .\ntonio on the National Tehauntepec 

 railway. It has been proposed that a 

 Mexican rubber exhibition be held in 

 connection with this meeting, at which 

 i;'n be shown the exhibits which are 

 ]rymg prepared for the International 

 Rubber and Allied Trades Exhibition 

 ; t Olympia, London, in September. 



.A new corporation has been formed 

 under the name Hacienda Del Corte, In- 

 c.irporated. to acquire and conduct the 

 rubber and coffee plantation "Del Corte" 

 in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, succeed- 

 ing the Isthmus Plantation Association 

 of Mexico, w-ith headquarters at Mil- 

 waukee, Wisconsin. The planting of rub- 

 ber began in June. 1901. and has been continued year by year, un- 

 til there are more than l.coo,ooo trees standing. The plantation 

 was developed under contract and was held in trust w hile the sub- 

 scribers to the plan were paying for shares in installments. The 

 development work having been completed, the shareholders have 

 assumed direct ownership, with a new compam' name as above 

 indicated. The officers are Walter Kempster, president; William 

 De Steese, vice president: William H. White, secretary; and 

 Charles B. Weil, treasurer. The headquarters remain at Mil- 

 waukee. 



There must be many thousands of rubber trees in ilexico to- 

 day, 7 to 10 years old, on plantations on which no tapping has 

 yet been done, and on which experimental work will be done 

 this year. Some very interesting results may be expected in 

 the very near future. 



