April 1, 1915.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



411 



Some Rubber Planting Notes. 



CEYLON VIEWS ON RUBBER. W '* R AND ceylon rubber plantations. 



When the great European war broke out the British male 



AN official re 1 by the Ceylon Commissioner to the Rubber population ol ' i ylon was estimated at about 4. IK), of winch 



Exhibition, just published, contains more that is ol live aD0Ul 2 - 24S wer< """ '•' milit; 5| ol '' " lg 



interest than is usually met with in such reports, Che fol- responsibli positions. Fully 70 pei cent, ol these men have 



lowing reference to crepe seems worth quoting "In the Malaj i° ined ,l " ' n <l : "' 1 ' "" u serving their country in 



:. thin crepe was the main form in which this grade was wa 3 or another. Some, ent volunteer reg.- 



shown, while in ours, blanket crepe largely predominated. This fact ments . were sen1 '" ,l "' front . while others h; ' " '" or " 



rth the attention of Ceylon planters [f milling is detrimental ganized to take the place of the Ro G rnson Artillery in 



th, nerve oi rubber, thin crepe, which is not milled so much guarding the colony. The result oi this is that the Europ. 



as blanket crepe, should be the more desirable form in which to sta ' the plantations has been verj senouslj depleted, and 



prepare this grade. Few had a g I word to saj foi crepe, the ma "er '- '" -'"■•" concern to rubbei i 



and of those who were then-, fev. would have been found to account ol the difficulty of contro n or in the 



recommend equipping nev, factories with creping machinery; absence of sufficient European supervision, rhe planters are 



yet h comman I , od a market as smoked sheet, making al- aI1 Patriotic and loyal, but they believe that owing to the 



lowance .... ups and downs I. is dear, pun- and dry, and favorable turn the war has taken for the Ulies, further ei- 



manufacturers lik. it f. i certain classes of g 1- not requiring lorts should ""' be made "' raise recru,ts amon S the P lan . ta " 



special qualities ol nerve. 1 believe, however, that we shall tion staffs and they are protesting against any press campaign 



rid , f the next decade-a diminution in the '» favor " ! continued enlistments. 



proportion of crepe turned out, as a result of the growing opin- STRAITS SETTLEMENTS RUBBER EXPORTS. 



ion that tearing n about on the. plantations between rollers >i.n official cablegram received by the Malay States Informa- 



could not possiblj improve the quality of the rubber, but, on the tion Agency from the Colonial Secretary. Singapore, states 



contrary, injures it. and that the onlj thing to be said for crepe that the export of plantation ml. her during tl i i ith of 



is that it looks nice and is in a convenient form for handling. January amounted to 2,576 tons, as compared with 2,334 tons 



Creping destroys the nerve of rubber and re, luces the strength, in December last and 1,181 tons in the corresponding month 



and one well-known manufacturing authority expressed the be- ' ast year. 



lief that it was al the root of complaints against plantation February exports amounted to -'741 tons, as against 1,703 in 



rubber." the corresponding month last year. The following table gives 



the comparison, month by month, for three years: 



PLANTATION AND HARD FINE. 1913 19 1 5 . 



.._-.. , ... , , . January tons 784 1,181 



I be t eylon ( ommissioner also states that he gave a good deal February 743 1,703 2,741 



of attention to the question of the relative merits of plantation _ . T~5^7 2~884 I73~17 



and bard fine Para, and what struck him more than anything _, . , , ,. cm,- -: ,, 



,. . ,... . , • 1 bese figures include transhipments oi rubber From various 



else was th. stolid indifference of manufacturers to academic . . . ., , , f . c . c . -,,-v, 



, , , places in the neighborhood oi the Straits Settlements, such 



arguments and tests conducted by those who were not them- „ T „ , . . ■ j _ , i «j,u„ 



.,,',,. . , as Borneo, Java. Sumatra and the non-Federated Malay 



selves manufacturers. Indeed, the disregard of the average _ ,, ,, .. , f „_, ,,,„ „_i„„,, 



,.,,,,. States, as well as rubber actually exported from the colony, 



manufacturer extended further than this, and included bis , , . . . , , ,, tt„ «,„..., ,„j u,i„. 



, .. but do not include rubber exports from the rederated Malay 



brother manufacturers who differed from him. Learned discus- _ 



. , ,. . , . . , , States. 



sions might be proceeding in the conference room upstairs, but federated Malay states rubber exports. 



hi would sit serenely at his stand exhibiting no interest in them _ . ., , „ . T 4 „ t „„ ,u.,, ,t,„ „_ 



_, , ...... , An official cablegram from Kuala Lumpur states that the ex- 



whatever. I he lesson seems to he that it is futile to try and , ,, , ., ,-. , , ,, , c , ., ,„„„ f i, 



J port of rubber from the Federated Malay States m the month 

 prove the manufacturer wrong by laboratory tests, to quote sta- . _ , , ... , ... ia-t-i 



'. . , . . . ' . , , of February amounted to .-..411 tons, as compared with J.4/.5 



tistics tending to show the superiority of plantation oyer hard . T ' , n ,,, . , „-._„_j:_„ ,„ „,t, u , 



. . : . ., , tons in January and 2.364 tons in the corresponding month last 



hue. A year or more ago tire manufacturers were timid about _, , :, , ,,,,-, ,u r , „ 



• year. The following are the comparative statistics tor three 

 acknowledging the use of any plantation, because even producers 



did not seem to be very fond of their product when it came to " ' 1913 1914 1915 



buying tires for their own cars. Then one firm, endowed per- January tons 2,131 3,473 



haps with clearer vision, boldly threw off the mask, and now February L757 



all are calling the world to witness that their tires are made Total 3,888 4,906 6,884 



almost entirely from plantation rubber. Moreover, such tires 



have become not only popular but fashionable. Singapore United Rubber Plantations, Limited, produced 



330,000 pounds of rubber in 1914. 



GUARDING TREES AGAINST DISEASE. . ,,..._ 



Terbrau Rubber Estates. Limited, report a crop ... 334,440 



Bark rot. a disease formerly very common in some rubber pounds f or 1914. f or wn ich an average price d. .5372 



plantations in Ceylon during the Northeast monsoon, can be cen t s ) was secured 



stopped by washing the tapping surface affected with a 20 per , T „ ,, „ T . . . .____,.. _ ,.• u n ; ria 



11 -. . . , ,. „. . kuala Lumpur Rubber Co.. Limited, reports a yield ot oiv 



cent, solution of Carbolineum Plantarmm. , , ,,, , . „„ 



, , , , , . , , pounds per acre and 6.22 pounds per tree 



It has been noted that in plantations where cocoa, jak or ncus c 

 stumps have been left after thinning out operations, root disease Bukit Kajan R Rubber Estates, Limited, report an increased 



has affected neighboring rubber trees. Rubber stumps left in Production and a 15 per cent, dividend. 



the same manner do not appear to spread disease, but as the Rubber plantations on the Island of Singapore covei 20,000 



disease is brought about by fungi, and experts believe it a mat- acres. In the Settlement of Mala 0.000 acres are 



ter of pure chance whether those fungi are injurious or not, it planted in rubber. There are }1 registered plantation companies 



is preferable to do away with all stumps. in this settlement. 



