> CHAPTER XIII 



THE MALAY PENINSULA 



f Origin of the Malay rubber industry Diseases and pests 

 common to rubber-trees in Malay-*-Principal localities of the 

 rubber plantations 'Area of rubber estates Reserve lands suit- 

 able for cultivation Acquisition and tenure of land Taxation of 

 the rubber industry ^Altitude of rubber estates Characteristic 

 features of the soil Meteorological conditions Variations of 

 temperature Capitalization of Malay rubber estates Excessive 

 capitalization, and its effects on the Malay rubber industry. 



IT was only when agricultural enterprise had fallen 

 to desperate straits in the Malay Peninsula that 

 the planting community began to consider the possi- 

 bilities of rubber production to avert a ruinous condi- 

 tion of affairs. The coffee industry was no longer 

 profitable, and the cost of labour was too high to 

 enable successful competition with Ceylon and India 

 in the cultivation of tea. The cost of planting the 

 coffee estates with rubber-trees was comparatively 

 trivial, and many proprietors adopted that course as a 

 last resource to save the capital already invested. The 

 trees flourished to an amazing degree, and an extra- 

 ordinary prosperity has resulted to the whole Malay 

 Peninsula. Perhaps no better comparison is possible 

 than to glance at the thriving circumstances of to-day 

 in the Federated Malay States, and to remember that 

 less than forty years ago the city of Kuala Lumpur was 

 the headquarters of one of the most bloodthirsty hordes 

 of pirates that ever existed. 



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