12 THE WHOLE ART OF RUBBER-GROWING 



of conservation can only have one effect in the case 

 of a country which already produces two-thirds of 

 the world's supply of rubber, whilst it must ultimately 

 exercise an influence on the price of the commodity 

 not at all in keeping with the optimism that reigns 

 to-day. 



Now we know all too little of the art of rubber- 

 growing to ignore the hard facts of an awakened 

 and alert Brazil. And though it were idle to discuss 

 at this stage the possibilities of output in this 

 connexion, it may not be unprofitable to consider 

 for a moment certain aspects of the question which 

 appeal more directly to those readers who are 

 in one way or another closely associated with the 

 industry. 



Take first in order the present position of our 

 Eastern plantation rubber together with the relative 

 importance of the trees grown there — the trees that 

 count. Here, for no other reason than that it is the 

 best known, the best understood, and therefore the 

 most favoured by our planters, I give pride of place 

 to the Hevea brasiliensis. It acclimatises satisfac- 

 torily, and thrives equally well both in Ceylon and 

 the Malay States, on the soddened plain and at 

 altitudes varying from 60 feet to 1800 feet above sea- 

 level, thus disposing of the long and snugly nursed 

 fallacy that only in damp marshy land could it ever 

 exist as an alien. Our own experiments in this direc- 

 tion make interesting reading. Of a truth we almost 

 managed to bungle the whole business at the begin- 

 ning, so far as Southern India was concerned, and 

 we find Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, of the Royal 



