i>70 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



Negri Sembilan, to Penang, the cultivation of rubber 

 estates is practically continuous, although broken at 

 intervals by Government forest reserves, and occasion- 

 ally by tin-mining operations. For the greater part of 

 this distance the planted area to the west of the railway 

 extends to the seaboard, and to the east to the foot-hills 

 of the mountain ranges intersecting the Peninsula. To 

 give an idea of the extension of this area, it may be 

 approximately calculated at 200 miles long, averaging 

 five miles wide, and containing a total of some 640,000 

 acres, including 500,000 acres of rubber estates. From 

 Tampin to Singapore, a distance of 150 miles through 

 the State of Johore, the cultivation is much more scat- 

 tered along the line of railway ; but it is rapidly increas- 

 ing, and it now exceeds 100,000 acres. 



Absolutely accurate returns of the acreage planted 

 throughout the Peninsula are not available to show the 

 present cultivated area. In 1910 the figures were given 

 officially as 362,000 acres, but all inquiries tend to 

 indicate that the statement was only an approximate 

 one. The difficulty lies in the fact that many Chinese 

 proprietors of large holdings do not make any 

 return, nor do the very numerous class of Malay and 

 Chinese owners of small patches planted with rubber, 

 but also cultivated with other crops between the trees. 

 In the Federated Malay States the export duty of 

 2j per cent, on the value is no check upon the acreage, 

 as the ages of the trees vary from those newly planted 

 to others twenty years old. In the Straits Settlements 

 of Malacca the assessment tax on trees is an equally 

 unreliable guide, for it only takes effect on trees of six 

 years and upwards. In the Native States no returns 



