504 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Rubber Planting Notes. 



RUBBER PLANTATION COMPANIES' REPORTS. 



RL'BBKK plantation coiiipanics' reports recently published, 

 show that successful results are general. A notable fea- 

 ture is the reduction in all-in costs. Among other in- 

 stances of excellent financial results are the following: The Sun- 

 gei Way (Selangor) Rubber Co., Limited, 52^4 per cent divi- 

 dend; the Udalage Tea & Rubber Co., Limited, 35 per cent; the 

 Peacock and Nilambe Tea & Rubber Co., Limited, 12 per cent ; 

 Dimbula Valley (Ceylon) Tea Co., Limited, 35 per cent; Pan- 

 tiya Tea & Rubber Co., Limited, 30 per cent ; Hingurugama Tea 

 & Rubber Estates, Limited, 24 per cent; Kepong (Malay) Rub- 

 ber Estates, Limited, 75 per cent. The Anglo Malay Rubber Co., 

 Limited, is raising its dividend from 32 to 60 per cent for the 

 year, the Cheronese Estates Co., Limited, from 15 per cent to 20 

 per cent, and the Mahawale Rubber & Tea Co., Limited, from 

 27^ to 60 per cent. The Seafield Rubber Co., Limited, paid a 

 final dividend of 65 per cent, compared with 45 per cent for 1914. 

 The Pataling Rubber Estates, Limited, report 225 per cent divi- 

 dend for 1915 against 175 for 1914 and the Selangor Rubber Es- 

 tates, Limited, have declared a 165J-2 per cent dividend. 



Generally speaking, shareholders in rubber plantation companies 

 have good reason to be satisfied with the present results,' and the 

 prospects for the future are certainly promising. 



ACETIC ACID VERSUS OTHER RUBBER COAGULENTS. 



Kelway Bamber, chemist, Ceylon Department of Agriculture, 

 has recently visited Java, Sumatra, and the Federated Malay 

 States. In the course of an interview granted to our 

 contemporary, the "Ceylon Observer," he said that he 

 was pleased with the growth of trees on rubber 

 plantations in the Malay States. He was, however, of the opinion 

 that thinning out was not done early enough, especially in the 

 case of the older trees. Where thinning out had reduced the 

 number to 80 or 90 trees per acre, at a reasonably early stage, he 

 noticed that the yield had improved. He was much interested in 

 the vulcanizing experiments being carried out by Mr. Eaton at the 

 Experimental Station at Kuala Lumpur, and considered as 

 especially valuable those relating to the time of vulcanization. The 

 cost of acetic acid has risen enormously, both in Java and in the 

 Federated Malay States, with the result that other coagulents are 

 being recommended. He believed estate superintendents should 

 be warned against using various coagulents, as many of them 

 have been shown to considerably affect the time of vulcanization. 

 In Mr. Bamber's opinion the fact that rubber manufacturers were 

 accustomed to rubber coagulated with acetic acid made it a mis- 

 take for plantations to ship rubber, even of a better appearance, 

 which might upset compounds and possibly cause the spoil- 

 ing of manufactured goods, in which case there would result a 

 feeling of distrust among the manufacturers which might influ- 

 •ence prices of all plantation rubber. 



A NEW BULLETIN ON RUBBER TAPPING. 



The Federated Malay States Department of Agriculture has 

 published a bulletin on "The Tapping of the Para Rubber Tree," 

 by E. Bateson, which contains much of interest to those who 

 study the technical probleins connected with rubber tapping. 



The investigations covered in this publication are divided into 

 six main sections, dealing with the effect of tapping on the starch 

 reserves, lateral transport of food in bark, tapping systems, theory 

 of tapping and, finally, a section on "some practical considerations 

 as regards the efifect of tapping on the starch reserves." The 

 conclusion reached by Mr. Bateson is that "if any depletion of 

 the starch reserves is caused by tapping, it is small in amount 

 and temporary in duration." He rejects Fitting's suggestion that 

 an examination of the starch reserves would be a useful method 

 of determining when trees are ready to be retapped after the 

 whole of the original bark has been removed, believing that "such 

 examinations are unnecessary and that the thickness of the re- 

 newed bark forms a perfectly safe criterion." 



Regarding the effects of leaf change upon starch reserves, Mr. 

 Bateson considers the facts elicited by his research somewhat too 

 meager, on account of the small number of trees examined, to 

 enable precise conclusions to be drawn on the points of theoretical 

 interest. He believes, however, that in the Federated Malay 

 States the effects of wintering are spread over such a long period 

 that they merely form part of the general problem of devising 

 a method of tapping, which, over a period of years, will not be 

 so exhaustive to the tree as to check its full and natural develop- 

 ment. 



In his tapping experiments Mr. Bateson describes only three 

 methods ; the single-quarter system with two cuts on one quarter, 

 the adjacent quarter system with one cut on each of two quarters; 

 and the opposite quarter system with one cut on each of two 

 quarters. He found that the bark of trees tapped by the adjacent 

 quarter system contained more starch than the bark of the trees 

 tapped differently, and that the thickness of renewing bark was 

 greater. As to rubber yield, the single quarter systein was 16 

 per cent better and the adjacent quarter system 31 per cent better 

 than the opposite quarter system, while the adjacent quarter sys- 

 tem yielded 13 per cent more than the single-quarter system of 

 tapping. 



Mr. Bateson is of the opinion that if trees growing in a soil 

 of average fertility are allowed sufficient space, four years will 

 be found quite adequate for bark renewal. 



AREA UNDER RUBBER IN COORG 



BRITISH INDIA. 



According to the official "Report on the Administration of 

 Coorg, 1914-1915," the total area under rubber in that province 

 of British India is 3,367 acres. 



RUBBER PLANTATIONS IN FRENCH COCHIN CHINA. 



The following table showing the extent of rubber plantations 

 in French Cochin China, has been compiled from data recently 

 published in the "'Annales des Planteurs de Caoutchouc de ITndo- 

 Chine," tlie official quarterly bulletin of the Rubber Planters' 

 Association of Indo-China : 



TIRES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



It is reported that the Dunlop Rubber Co. (South Africa), 

 Limited, has received a repeat order from the South African 

 Union Government for 350 pairs of motorcycle tire casings, for 

 use with the machine-gun section for further operations in 

 German East Africa. 



:oi 



I'nH 



Province Rubber 



Giadinh 7,805 



Bienhoa 13,206 



Baria 3,610- 



Hatien 618 



Tayninh 3.494 



Thudaumot 10,181 



Total 38.915 



