THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



(October 1, 1915 



Some Rubber Planting Notes. 



COST OF PRODUCTION OF PLANTATION RUBBER. 



THE Far Eastern press has of late devoted considerable atten- 

 tion to the question of giving greater publicity to estate 

 costs. Opinions on the subject, of course, diflfer, the 

 majority of the parties interested being opposed to the publi- 

 cation of costs, while a strong minority favor the publication 

 of this information. The majority consider the cost of pro- 

 duction of rubber as a business secret that should not be 

 divulged, but the minority contend that rubber planting is an 

 exceptional line of business and that it stands on a plane by 

 itself. A correspondent of the Kuala Lumpur daily "iMalay 

 Mail" gives the following view of the question: 



Rubber planting is an industry practically limited to the 

 Dutch East Indies, Malaya and Ceylon. There are rubber 

 plantations in East Africa and in a few other parts of the 

 globe, but their combined output is so small that their exist- 

 ence does not affect the question. Large sums of money 

 have been secured from thousands of shareholders and in- 

 vested in rubber plantations. The Far Eastern plantation in- 

 dustry has led to a change in government policies. It con- 

 cerns not only investors but the world in general, occupying 

 a unique position not to be compared with general industries. 



Though admitting this, there are many people who still 

 maintain that it would not be a good tiling to publish "all-in" 

 costs. "Why," they ask, "should the whole world know our 

 costs in producing rubber?" The "Malay Mail's" correspond- 

 ent believes that the adoption by all of the practice of pub- 

 lishing costs would lead to greater economic stability — thai 

 the competitive element has to exist to produce the best re- 

 sults and that the competitive test can be safely applied to 

 rubber estate work. The industry is, comparatively speaking, 

 a young industry, with much to learn. The boom days are 

 over, and prices are lowermg to a more natural level. The 

 successful estate manager is reducing his costs to a minimum 

 by improved methods in tapping and by improvement in the 

 yields obtained. If every estate published its costs, this 

 economy should act as an incentixe to tliose still producing 

 on a fairly high scale. 



Another point is that the vast number of shareholders 

 who have invested in rubber naturally want to know, not 

 only what the output has been and what profit has been 

 niade. but what was the cost of production. But there should 

 be uniformity of accounts, tt is difficult accurately to ap- 

 portion estate charges. The average estate is planted in sec- 

 tions, and the rubber is in varying stages of development. 

 If the whole estate is to bear the "all-in" costs, it is obvious 

 that the sections of it that are not in bearing are going to 

 consume a large amount of money without giving any output 

 retnrn. The accounts should be made separately for each 

 section, so that it could be ascertained what the actual cost 

 of working each section is. But where the whole estate ii 

 in bearing, and all estate and managerial items are charge 

 able against the ruliber harvested, there is no reason why the 

 cost per pound of rubber could not be published with bene- 

 ficial results. 



PARA RUBBER IN THE BRITISH GOLD COAST COLONY. 



The government of the British Gold Coast recently published 

 a report on the agricultural department of the colony which 

 contains some interesting items regarding experiments con- 

 ducted in the department's experimental stations at Tarquah and 

 Coomassie with Para and Fitntutnia. 



At Tarquah two lots of Hcira trees, of 15 trees each, have 

 licen tapped continuously on the half-spiral and half-herring- 



l.oiic .sysuni^ .Muce March, 1910. The total average yield per 

 tree from the two .systems is 17 pounds, 4 ounces and 14 pounds. 

 10^2 ounces, respectively, showing a yield of over 2>4 pounds 

 per tree in favor of the herring-bone system. The herring-bone 

 system employed consisted of three half-herring-bone cuts at 

 about 20 inches apart on one-third of the circumference of the 

 tree. It was found that the bark on this one-third of the tree 

 Was used up after 16 months continuous tapping, so that the 

 original bark would last four years, at the end of which time 

 the new bark would be sufficiently strong to be retapped. Ex- 

 periments proved that better results are obtained from renewed 

 bark than from the original hark. 



The estimated cost of production for rubber produced on the 

 department's experimental stations was from 9 to Ud. per 

 pound, so that the rubber produced was sold' at a profit in spite 

 of the low rates prevailing in the crude rubber market. 



Experiments conducted with Funtumia trees, which are tapped 

 in the full herring-bone fashion, showed that the Funtumia is not 

 a good rubber plantation tree, for the yields were small for first 

 tappings and even smaller for second tappings, the only redeem- 

 ing feature being the lower cost of collecting and preparing the 

 rubber, which was 2]/2d. per pound for the first tapping and 4^rf. 

 for the second tapping. Funtumia grows more slowly than 

 Hevea, it develops a poor root system and is easily uprooted by 

 storms. Pests gave the Gold Coast experimental stations but 

 little trouble except when the trees were young. 



RUBBER EXPORTS FROM MOZAMBIQUE. 



During the year 1913 — the latest period for which statistics are 

 available— the exports of rubber from Portuguese Mozambique 

 amounted to 17,906 pounds. 



RUBBER PLANTING IN BRITISH GUIANA. 



Mr. C. K. Bancroft, assistant director. Department of 

 Science and Agriculture, British Guiana, recently contributed 

 an interesting article on Para rubber planting in British 

 Guiana to the "Daily Argosy." of Georgetown, Britisii 

 Guiana. 



The writer states tliat the cost per acre of bringing Para 

 trees into bearmg am.ounts to about £40 [$194.66]. From ex- 

 periments in tapping 379 trees five and a half years old, and 

 300 trees six and a half years old at the Issororo experiment 

 station, he deduces that the cost of collecting rubber from 

 trees growing under suitable conditions would average 

 slightly less than seven cents per pound dry rubber. He 

 believes that these experiments, though they were conducted 

 on a small scale, demonstrate that plantation rubber can be 

 produced at a profit in British Guiana with Para plantation 

 rubijcr selling on the market at 48 cents per pound, and 

 that the average profit per acre would be in the neighbor- 

 hood of $144 per annum. 



DROUGHT IN NORTHERN BRAZIL. 



The states of Ceara. Parahyba and Rio Grande do Norte, in 

 Northern Brazil, are suffering from a very severe drought. The 

 stricken districts furnish annually a large contingent of rubber 

 gatherers who are now in a condition of famine and totally un- 

 able to equip themselves or to pay for their transportation to the 

 rubber districts. As the Brazilian government subsidizes the 

 lines of steamships running up the rivers to the forests in the 

 interior it is suggested, in influential circles in Northern Brazil, 

 that the government should furnish free transportation to those 

 desiring to go into the rul)ber country. 



Replete with information for rubber manufacturers — Mr 

 Pearson's "Crude Rubber and Compounding Ingredients." 



