210 Some Diseases of Plantation Rubber in Malaya 



planted with it that the plantation industry is superseding the collection 

 of rubber from wild sources. In Malaya large numbers of estates 

 are contiguous to one another, and in travelling by rail from Penang 

 to the borders of Johore one passes through an almost continuous 

 rubber forest, broken here and there by other cultivations or by tin- 

 mining areas and only once interrupted by a considerable jungle belt. 

 These estates are usually devoid of inter-crops, hence this enormous 

 tract of country, planted with a single product, would offer favourable 

 opportunities for the establishment of disease on a serious scale were 

 it not for the robust nature of Hevea hrasiliensis , its relative immunity 

 from disease, and the measures already taken to check fungoid parasites. 

 Fortunately no disease of an epidemic nature has yet attacked plantation 

 rubber with the possible exception of Pink Disease (7), which sometimes 

 affects numbers of trees simultaneously in certain parts of the country 

 during wet weather. It is probable, however, that Pink Disease can 

 be kept under control if proper precautions are taken. No serious leaf 

 disease of Hevea has yet been recorded in the East and the type of leaf, 

 thin but tough, is one not specially liable to fungoid attack. One can 

 safely say that plantation rubber is at present at least as healthy as 

 most of the agricultural crops of temperate countries. 



Although plantation rubber has been so healthy hitherto it must 

 be emphasised that this happy state can only be maintained by con- 

 tinued vigilance in the treatment of disease as soon as it appears. The 

 planting of enormous areas with one kind of plant offers special facilities 

 for the propagation of disease unless any danger which threatens is 

 dealt with drastically at once. It is fortunate for the plantation rubber 

 industry that planters as a body are keen to combat disease and it is 

 now the rule on estates to seek expert assistance as soon as troubles 

 of this nature arise. Planters have by experience developed sound 

 views on the subject of plant sanitation. The ravages of Hcmileia 

 vastatrix and other injurious organisms upon coffee in Ceylon has 

 made a deep impression upon them. Many Malayan planters were 

 formerly planters in Ceylon where they had actual experience of the 

 effect of disease in the coffee industry or heard about it from the older 

 men, and not a few saw similar ravages upon coffee in the Federated 

 Malay States before the cultivation of this crop on a large scale was 

 abandoned. 



Within the last few years estate practices have changed in a direction 

 that conduces to maximum vigour in the trees. Whereas it was formerly 

 Customary to plant 350 and more trees to the acre it is now usual to 



