230 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



the Bila River where communication by water is avail- 

 able. 



Statistics regarding the extent of cultivated rubber in 

 Sumatra vary considerably, and no official return is 

 made of acreage or number of trees. A handbook pub- 

 lished in Medan estimates the area at 126,000 acres in 

 1911, but qualifies this by stating that details of many 

 plantations are omitted. A census furnished by the 

 Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij gives the number 

 of trees in 1911 as 16,733,470, or approximately 

 167,000 acres. 



The Secretary of the Planters' Association of Sumatra 

 stated that the returns for 1911, on which subscriptions 

 were based, showed about 145,000 acres under cultiva- 

 tion, but that these did not include isolated estates on 

 the west coast or any Chinese or Malayan holdings. 

 In the circumstances the returns of the Nederlandsche 

 Handel Maatschappij must be accepted as much the 

 most reliable, on account of the facilities of that very 

 important corporation for acquiring accurate infor- 

 mation ; therefore, the estimate of 167,000 acres may 

 be taken as a conservative calculation of the area under 

 cultivation in December, 1911. The area planted 

 during 1912 was not less than 60,000 acres ; of this 

 area 55,000 acres lie in the districts on the east coast, 

 and 5,000 in the south-eastern and western sections of 

 the island. Many planters insist that this figure of 

 60,000 acres for 1912 is too low, but confirmation as to 

 any greater area is not forthcoming. In 1913 an 

 additional 10,000 acres was placed under cultivation. 



The following table shows the expansion of the 

 rubber-planting industry during the past eight years : 



