INDIA 



HEVEA 



Para 



RUBBER 



BRASILIENSIS 



EUBBER-YIELDING PLANTS 



Mergui 

 Plantations. 



Yield. ' 



Private 

 Enterprise. 



South 

 India. 



Bengal. 



George King in 1877. A second consignment was obtained in 1879 from Ceylon. 

 In 1884 some of the better established plants began to seed, and an acclima- 

 tised stock of seedlings was thereby obtained. Manson, in his Short History 

 of the Mergui Rubber Plantations of that Province, has carried the record to the 

 present date. In May 1900 sanction was accorded for the gradual formation 

 of a plantation of 10,000 acres of iicven trees. This was to be located, 5,000 

 acres in the Sandawut reserve and a similar area on King Island. The work 

 was started in 1901 by 46 acres being planted out, 12 by 12 feet. By 1904, 

 1,518 acres had been planted, and the operations have since been vigorously 

 prosecuted, annual extensions taking place according to the scheme sanctioned. 

 The purpose in view has been to demonstrate the commercial possibilities of this 

 rubber cultivation in Mergui. Already 929 Ib. of rubber have been produced, 

 and the nurseries, according to the last report, contained 600,000 plants, with an 

 addition of 100,000 self-sown seedlings in the original experimental garden. In 

 the Annual Report Forest Administration of the Tenasserim Circle (1904-5, 

 31-3), W. F. L. Tottenham, Conservator of Forests, gives the results of a 

 further year's efforts. The total amount of dry rubber collected during 1904-5 

 was 1,450 Ib., of which 54 Ib. 6 oz. were collected during the rains. The cost of 

 collection came to about 1 1 annas per Ib. The area was intended to have been 

 extended by 1,250 acres, but owing to an outbreak of cholera only 818-65 acres 

 were added to the plantation. Of that expansion 736'87 acres were in Mergui, 

 and 81 '78 acres on King Island. The conservator of the Northern Circle (I.e. 52) 

 says that has not proved a success in the Katha Division. Hooper (Rept. 

 Labor. Ind. Mus. (Indust. Sec.), 1906-7, 6) mentions the result of examination of 

 a sample taken from a white-ant's nest (Terinvtt ijnnt >!). The rubber was of great 

 excellence, the resin having apparently been extracted by the ants. 



Thus, then, it may fairly be said that Brandis, who early foretold success 

 for Tenasserim Para-rubber cultivation, has been abundantly confirmed, and 

 the future seems destined to see large developments. Already private enterprise 

 is engaged in the business, and doubtless when the possibilities in this direction 

 of its forest property have been fully established, Government may withdraw. 

 (Ind. For., Sept. 1905, xxxi., 330-4). For methods of propagation and systems 

 of tapping the trees, consult the technical publications, more especially the 

 circulars issued by the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon. 



South India. A good deal of interest has recently been taken in the possi- 

 bility of Travancoro and even of Mysore becoming hopeful localities for Para- 

 rubber cultivation. It is said by planters and others that thousands of acres of 

 heavy forest-land, below 1,000 feet in altitude, exist that possess rich soils and a 

 liberal rainfall, eminently suited for rubber, but which at present are valueless 

 because not put to any purpose. Some progress has, however, been made, but 

 taking South India as a whole, Para rubber has not so far been the unqualified 

 success anticipated. A writer in the Madras Mail (March and April, 1905) 

 seems to take a hopeful view, however, and the subject has by no means been 

 abandoned. 



Bengal and Assam. Considerable efforts have been made to organise Para- 

 rubber plantations in Northern and Eastern India, but with little encouragement 

 so far. The trees have been planted out in Kurseong, Jalpaiguri and Buxa, but 

 the reports of the Forest Department cannot be said to be favourable. [Cf. 

 Mann, Cult, of Para Rubber in North-East Ind., in Agri. Journ. Ind., 1907, 

 ii., pt. iii., 273-6.] 



[Cf. Robert Cross, Rept. Investig., 1877, reprinted in Ind. For., 1879, iv., 

 5-26 ; Notes on same, I.e. 1882, viii., 62-5 ; Temple, The Rubber Industry in 

 Amazonas State, Dipl. and Cons. Repts. Brazil, Misc., 1900, 530 ; Agri. Bull. Straits 

 and Fed. Malay States, 1903, ii., 99-105 ; Willis, Circ. Roy. Bot. Gard. Ceylon, 1898, 

 No. 4, 23-36 ; 1899, 105-68 ; Kew Bull., 1898, 241-77 ; Morris, Cant. Lect., I.e. 

 750-60 ; Mukerji, Handbook Ind. Agri., 1901, 485-9 ; Stanley Arden, Rept. Fed. 

 Malay States, 1903 ; Agri. Bull. Straits and Fed. Malay States, 1903, ii., 1-4, 

 44-8 ; Thiselton-Dyer, Ten-year-old Trees, 70-1 ; Rodrigues, The Heveas or 

 Seringueiras, 12-6, 57-61 ; Pears, On Preparation of Crude Rubber, 1904, iii., 

 119-20, 159; De Indische Mercuur, 1904, 309-10, 327-9, 330, 439-40; Agri. 

 Bull. Straits and Fed. Mai. States, 1904, iii., 311-9, 339-88, 405, 412-8, 441-2; 

 Hawaiian For. and Agri., 1904, 290-1 ; Trop. Agrist., 1905, 446-8 ; Johnson, Cult. 

 and Preparation of Para Rubber ; Tromp de Haas, Results of Exper. Tappings 

 of Hevea Brasiliensis, in Cult. Econ. Gard. Tjikeumenh, 1900-4, transl. in 

 Agri. Bull. Straits and Fed. Mai. States, Aug. 1905, iv. ; Bull. Imp. Inst., 



656 



