CHAPTER XVI 

 THE NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES : SUMATRA 



Principal rubber-producing districts Extension of the rubber 

 plantations Available lands for new plantations Land tenure 

 Freedom from taxation Altitude of rubber estates Character- 

 istic features of the soil Meteorological conditions How the 

 rubber industry originated Custom of planting catch crops 

 General health of the rubber-trees Value of rubber plantations 

 Cost of opening, equipping, and maintaining, an estate of 1,000 

 acres Maintenance of an estate six years old. 



UNTIL 1890 the development of the eastern section 

 of Sumatra was confined to a comparatively nar- 

 row strip of land adjoining the seaboard in the provinces 

 of Deli and Asahan. Previous to that year active 

 military operations were constantly in progress between 

 the Dutch troops and the followers of the Sultan of 

 Acheen, and even the comparatively settled districts 

 near the sea-coast were not infrequently subjected to 

 raids made by the hostile tribes of the country in the 

 interior of the island. Under these circumstances 

 access to the inland districts was forbidden by the 

 authorities until 1899, and for some years after that 

 date permission was only granted with a chary hand. 

 The first section of the island to enjoy settled conditions 

 was the province of Deli ; this soon became the centre 

 of a most profitable tobacco-planting industry, which 

 has developed to important proportions during the past 

 twenty years. At a later period Liberian coffee planta- 



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