November 1, 1914.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



105 



Estates throughout the country have overhauled their ex- 

 penditures, which had, perhaps, got rather out of hand during 

 the continuance of high prices, and many economies have b< n 

 effected in all directions. 



WILD VERSUS PLANTATION RUBBER. 



Inferior grades of wild rubbers, it is expected, will no longer 

 be able to compete with the cleaner and better plantation prod- 

 uct, and with an increasing consumption of rubber, even only 

 on past lines, the virtual disappearance of inferior wild gr; ! 

 should steady the market for the cultivated product. The full 

 effect of this, of course, cannot be seen at once, as stocks of 

 these grades had to be disposed of even at unremunerative 

 prices. If manufacturers can expect a steady market at about 

 present prices, there is little doubl that fresh uses will be found 

 for rubber, and thus the increasing supplies of the plantation 

 product coming forward during the next few years will be 

 absorbed. 



The estates that suffered worst from the rapidity of the fall 

 in price are those which had only a part of their acreage in 

 bearing and had calculated to use the profits on this to carry 

 the younger areas on to the producing stage. With profits 

 falling off as they did, it was impossible to carry out the 

 original program, and at the same time the issue of fresh cap- 

 ital was rendered very difficult. It was no longer profitable 

 even to tap some 4-5 year old areas which had been counted 

 on to yield a fair profit at 3s. (72.98 cents) per pound. The 

 Planters' Loan Fund of the Federated Malay States Govern- 

 ment has been of great assistance to many estates in this pre- 

 dicament, and the capital of the fund was increased by a 

 further $1,000,000 during the year, but this new capital was 

 available only for private owners and syndicates and local com- 

 panies. 



A WORD OF ADVICE. 



It may now be assumed that rubber can be produced f. o. b. 

 by many estates at Is. (24.33 cents) per pound. Estates with 

 large areas of older rubber and those favorably situated can 

 produce for less than this; but it is not suggested that the 

 majority of the estates will be able to produce at this price 

 for some years. ' 



The increase in the yields from trees as they mature and 

 the reduction in the number of trees per acre by thinning out 

 will insure automatically a steady drop in the cost of produc- 

 tion on younger estates. This should be increased by a careful 

 and sound economy, but Mr. Levvton-Brain points out that 

 everything that reduces expenditure is not necessarily economy. 

 In particular, to cut down supervision beyond the point of ef- 

 ficiency is no more true economy than it would be to reduce 

 expenditure on weeding to such a point that the trees become 

 smothered in lalang. Economy in manufacture also seems to 

 him to be carried out on wrong lines ; small buildings are often 

 put up when an estate is coming into bearing, which must ob- 

 viously be scrapped in a year or two, and all work is done by 

 hand. Provided that money is available, it would seem 

 sounder economy to plan from the first for the future require- 

 ments of the estate. 



CULTIVATION. 



In his report Mr. Lewton-Brain makes some important re- 

 marks on cultivation and the preparation of rubber for export 

 based upon experiments carried out by various members of the 

 scientific staff of the Federated Malay States Department of 

 Agriculture. 



Wider planting is advocated for more rapid growth of trees 

 and more substantial yield. The general view now is that 

 not more than 100 trees should be planted originally to the acre 

 and that eventually about 40 or 50 to the acre should be left. 

 A number of influential planters even favor planting originally 

 not more than 50 trees to the acre. The change that has oc- 

 curred since a few years ago, when 180 to 200 trees were usu- 



ally planted, and when 100 tiers was regarded as the proper 

 and ideal number to work to, is quite remarkable. 



Cat lie still in little favor and no planter will adopt 



this form of cultivation if he can avoid it. Indigo has not 

 proved a success, but with wider spacing between the rubber 

 trees there are possibilities for coffee cultivation as a re- 

 munerative crop. 



1 ovei crops that are not revenue producing are also littl< 

 among Federated Malay States planters, though a 

 tendency to use them on steeper hillsides is noticed. Mr. Lew- 

 ton Brain enumerates certain advantages to be derived from 

 good cover-crops, however, and he also deals with manurial 

 iiments and methods of tapping, and mentions that culti- 

 vation of soil as distinguished from the standard clean-weeding 

 " '•' pted on a good many estates. In this latter con- 



nection he states that an interesting series of experiment 

 been started at Castleton Estate, Telok Anson (belonging to 

 the department) to test the cost and effects of different sys- 

 of cultivation on this type of soil, combined with ti 

 r-crops. Experiments in the use of dynamite for cultivation 

 have also been made at Kuala Lumpur and at Castleton, and 

 assistance has been given to a number of estates which were 

 also experimenting. 



In regard to tapping Mr. Lewton-Brain says it is clear that 

 if the cost of production per pound of rubber is' alone to be 

 considered, the manager will undoubtedly select the alternate day 

 system; incidentally, he will, of course, postpone tapping his 

 trees at all as long as possible. He emphasizes the fact that 

 it is not the profit per pound of rubber produced that alone 

 should be considered, but the profit made per acre, and too 

 much insistence on the reduction in cost per pound of rubber 

 produced is therefore dangerous. 



EXPERIMENTS IN MANUFACTURE. 



There has probably been more discussion and writing about 

 the subject of plantation rubber manufacture than during any 

 period since the beginning of the industry. The steadily fall- 

 ing price of the plantation product and the disparity in price 

 between this and line iiard Para brought forward innumerable 

 suggestions and theories to explain the supposed inferiority 

 of the plantation product. What manufacturers do complain 

 of, as regards plantation rubber, is not that it is not good, but 

 that it is not uniform in the qualities on which they depend 

 in the manufactured article. Each lot has to be treated dif- 

 ferently, otherwise the final product is not of the same quality. 



Having stated the problem, Mr. Lewton-Brain sets himself 

 to deal with the solution, and sets forth the experiences of the 

 experimental vulcanizing and testing station established by the 

 federated Malay States government at Kuala Lumpur. It is 

 one of the most complete in existence. The problem of the 

 variability of plantation rubber is an extremely complicated 

 om much more so than appears at first sight, and it will prob- 

 ably be years before the full value of the work to be under- 

 taken can be realized. It is at any rate satisfactory to record 

 that the first step has been taken and that real work on the 

 fundamental problem of rubber manufacture has been started. 

 Generally speaking^rmich more care is being taken on the larger 

 and better equipped plantations to keep their methods and 

 products as uniform as possible, but it is regrettable, he writes, 

 that methods on so many estates are still so haphazard. 



The experiments carried out dealt with smoking, drying, 

 dilution of latex, coagulation, fungus "spots," tackiness, etc., 

 and in conclusion Mr. Lewton-Brain deals with insect and 

 other pests of the rubber tree and fungus diseases. 



People interested financially in the plantation rubber indus- 

 try will doubtless be gratified to learn that additions have been 

 made to the staff of the agricultural department and that the 

 Government of the Federated Malay States is doing so much 

 to safeguard the interests of rubber growing, which has become 

 the chief agricultural industry of the country. 



