GUTTA CULTIVATION. 47 



4. The demand for c^utta has iiicrensed enormously since the iutro- 

 duction of submarine telegraph cables. It is estimated that the trade 

 consumes 4,000,000 pounds a year. The article forms one of the principal 

 exports from this Colony, as much as 76,592 pikuls (10,212,266f pounds) 

 having been exported last year, the value of which is given at §4,940,890, 

 or about £82.5,000. The greater portion by far of this quantity goes to the 

 United Kingdom, and has been imported here from Dutch India. From 

 the Protected Native States only a little is obtained, because, on finding 

 that the forests were being denuded of gutta ti-ees through the destruc- 

 tive system adopted in procuring the sap, a stop was put for a time to 

 its collection. 



5. A syndicate has been formed here to work out the process and to 

 establish a factory, and, so far as I can judge, there is evei'y prospect of a 

 very valuable industry and most profitable concern being in their hands. 



I have, etc., 

 The Right Hon. {Signed) Cecil C. Smith. 



The Lord Knutsfoed, g.c.m.g., 



Colonial Office, 



(Royal Gardens, Keiv, to Colonial Office.) 



Royal Gardens, Kew, 



24f/i August, 1891. 



Sir,— 



I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of August 

 19th, enclosing a copy of a despatch from the Governor of the Straits 

 Settlements on a new process for extracting gutta percha. 



2. It has long been known that both in the case of india rubber 

 and of gutta percha the ordinary methods in use only yielded a portion of 

 the milk contained in the tree or vine operated upon. Where the method 

 of tapping was resorted to this was rather advantageous than otherwise, 

 as the tree was not exhausted by the process, and could at intervals be 

 repeatedly tapped again. 



3. Where, however, the tree was felled in order to drain it of its 

 milk, as appears to be the case with gutta percha yielding trees, 

 there can be no doubt that the residual loss was very considerable, 

 and the corresponding irrecoverable waste very great. 



4. This was carefully pointed out by Mr. Leonard Wray, Junior, the 

 Curator of the Perak State Museum, in a very important report presented 

 to Sir Hugh Low, g.c.m.g., then Her Britannic Majesty's Resident, Perak, 

 September 25th, 1883. In this he states:— "The bark on _ the upper 

 part of the trunk and on the branches . . . . is just as rich in gutta 

 as the lower portion of the trunk. Even the leaves contain a notable 

 proportion." He estimated that the wet bark contains fully 57 per 

 cent of gutta percha, and that " by simply pounding or rasping and 

 boiling the bark nearly all the gutta which it contained may be 



