PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF RUBBER. 15 



Without taking into consideration the additional areas planted 

 since this compilation was prepared, let us endeavour to estimate 

 the yield from, say, 500,000 acres. A very large portion of this 

 has been planted with Para trees which, as will be shown later, 

 yield about | to I Ib. of dry rubber per tree when five or six 

 years old, and this may increase till as much as 25 Ibs. per tree 

 is produced in one year from old trees. The latter is an 

 exceptionally large return, and must not be taken into con- 

 sideration for the purposes of the present estimate. The yield 

 from areas not planted with Hevea trees will probably not be so 

 large. Rubber trees are planted at distances varying from 10 to 

 40 feet apart. Many trees have already been tapped for several 

 years, and considerable numbers will reach the productive stage 

 in a year or two, while it is estimated that the whole half million 

 acres should be in bearing by the year 1913. But let us take 

 very conservative figures and assume that we have half a million 

 acres planted with rubber-producing trees, planted at 20 by 20 

 feet apart, or 109 trees to the acre, that the average yield per tree 

 will be in six years' time, i.e., 1913, I Ib. of rubber per tree, and 

 that the average yield per tree will only increase by 4 oz. 

 annually for ten years. Calculated on this basis the world's 

 production of cultivated rubber from our half million acres will 

 be as follows : 



Far higher returns than those given above have been 

 prophesied. Ferguson* considers that 31,000 tons of rubber will 

 be produced in the East from 320,000 acres during the year 1913, 

 and estimates the following probable exports of rubber from 

 Asia in tons : 



* Supplement, Tropical Agrictilturist, p. 66, Sept. 1907. 



