66 RUBBER 



of 47,618 tons; note that in the short period of thirteen 

 years the total from the plantations had grown bigger* 

 than that from the Amazon Valley, and nearly as big 

 as the sum total of wild rubber from aU sources of 

 supply. By 1918, the world's rubber output had leapt 

 up to 241,579 tons, to which Brazil contributed 30,700 

 tons,- and the rest of the world's forests 9,929 tons, 

 against 200,950 tons from the plantations- — over 

 140,000 tons of the plantation supply came from 

 Malaya. The estimated output for 1919 is 382,C00 

 tons, of which it is calculated that 339,000 tons wiU 

 come from the plantations ; the extent of Malaya's con- 

 tribution to the plantation total may be judged from 

 the fact that her output for the first six months of that 

 year already totalled upwards of 128,000 tons. 



You find these figures dull ? Look at them again 

 for a minute, then pause and give your imagination 

 rein. In 1900 a mere patch of the British Empire is 

 planted up experimentally with rubber trees, raised 

 from seed originally brought from the Amazon Valley 

 under adventure-story conditions; the total output is 

 a mere 4 tons of rubber. In 1918, much less than a 

 quarter of a century later, rubber plantations are 

 occupying nearly three million acres of land, mostly 

 within our Empire, whilst the annual yield is up to 

 241,579 tons, and is still rapidly increasing. 



Does not the romance behind these figures begin to 

 grip you ? Never in the whole world's commercial 

 history has so great a triumph been achieved in so short 

 a time and in the face of such difficulties as the develop- 

 ment of the plantation rubber industry. Here, indeed, 

 is a triumph that should make you proud of your 

 countrymen, for the motive power behind that develop- 



