RUBBER PLANTING n 



estates covered only 350 acres in Malaya. By the end 

 of 1906 the area of rubber plantations was practically 

 equal to that in Ceylon. In 1912 Wright estimated this 

 area to have increased to 420,000 acres. Whereas in 

 Ceylon a material proportion of the rubber has been 

 planted through existing tea estates, practically the 

 whole area under rubber in Malaya has been cleared of 

 virgin forest. 



After Ceylon and Malaya, the next most important 

 centre for rubber cultivation is the Dutch East Indies. 

 It is estimated that 150,000 acres have recently been 

 planted in Java and 70,000 in Sumatra. The latter is 

 largely in the hands of English companies. The greatest 

 part of this rubber is Hevea, but considerable areas of 

 Ficus, Castilloa and Manihot also exist in Java. 



Although India was the country originally proposed 

 for the site of a great planting industry, the early con- 

 signments of seeds the first dates back to 1873 did 

 not meet with much success, and little planting took 

 place before 1900. At the time of writing, however, 

 40,000 acres have probably been planted with Hevea in 

 Southern India. 



In West Africa at the present time plantations 

 probably consist about equally of Hevea and of the 

 native Funtumia. In Angola and in Central and East 

 Africa, on the other hand, Ceara rubber is beginning to 

 be widely cultivated. In America, too, the natural 

 sources of rubber are being widely supplemented by 

 plantations. In Mexico large areas are cultivated 



