64 RUBBER 



You must not imagine that the crash put an end to 

 rubber-growing. True, the faith of the public in this 

 industry had been rouglily shaken at the critical time 

 when that faith was just beginning to bud; but the 

 industry was sufficiently well-established to withstand 

 this check, and go on fighting to attain its main object 

 —to become more popular than Wild Rubber with the 

 manufacturer. 



CHAPTER XIV 



WILD RUBBER V. PLANTATION RUBBER 



The Eastern Tropics are the chief seat of rubber- 

 growing, and the countries in which the principal 

 plantations are situated are British Malaya (Federated 

 Malay States and Straits Settlements), Ceylon, Java, 

 Sumatra, and Borneo. Plantations have also been 

 established in Brazil, Central America, Mexico, the 

 West Indies, British Guiana, and West Africa. The 

 bulk of the cultivated trees are of the Hevea hrasiliensis 

 variety, yielding what is known as Para rubber. 



At present the only plantation rubber which wild 

 rubber has to fear is the Para that comes from the 

 Eastern plantations. You remember how recently 

 the first rubber plantations were established in the 

 East. Here are a few facts which will give you a 

 rough idea of the enormous developments that have 

 been brought about in a few years. 



In the Malay Peninsula, upwards of 1,000,000 acres 

 of land are planted up with Hevea. Malaya has 

 become the biggest rubber-producing country in the 

 world, its output having increased from 130 tons in 



