204 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



reasonable profits will be insured to plantations which are 

 managed in a businesslike way. The growth of the plantation 

 rubber business is indicated by the simple fact that the export 

 of rubber from Ceylon and the Federated Malay States in 

 1903 was 19 tons and in 1913 was 48,000 tons. Taking plan- 

 tation rubber as a whole, 95 per cent, of it is Hevea. The 

 importation of rubber into the United States in 1914 was 

 143,000,000 pounds. This indicates the enormous extent to 

 which the demand now comes for the manufacture of rubber 

 tires. The price of rubber has fluctuated quite widely since 

 rubber became a commercial industry. The lowest London 

 price for Para rubber was 37 cents in 1865 and the highest 

 price was $3.12 in 1910. The present prices are greatly in- 

 fluenced by the European War, but it has been estimated that 

 many of the plantations now in operation are prepared to 

 produce rubber at a profit for 25 or 30 cents per pound. 



The United States occupies a very unimportant position in 

 rubber production. Considerable plantings of Ceara, Hevea, 

 and Castilloa rubber have been made in the Philippines, Porto 

 Rico, and Hawaii, but practically no rubber is now coming 

 upon the market from these plantations. In the Philippines 

 most of the trees are still too young. In Hawaii there are 

 about 1,500 acres of Ceara rubber old enough for tapping. 

 In fact, the trees have been tapped with success for 3 or 4 

 years. It has been found, however, that rubber cannot be pro- 

 duced at a profit on the Hawaiian rubber plantations when the 

 market price of rubber is less than 55 cents a pound. Tapping 

 has therefore been temporarily suspended until the price of 

 rubber improves. An attempt was made on one of the Ha- 

 waiian islands to grow guayule but without success. The 

 Hevea rubber does not thrive well in Hawaii except in pro- 

 tected places not exposed to the trade winds. All kinds of 

 rubber trees which have been tried in Porto Rico do well and 

 seem to give promise of success. Thus far, however, there is 

 no commercial rubber industry in Porto Rico. fl'i 



