72 EXPLOITATION OF PLANTS 
estimates had erred altogether upon the conservative 
side. Wot only could more than 1} lb. be obtained 
from a tree in a year, but the trees were found to be in 
bearing at six years old; and the price obtained was 
decidedly better than some years previously. The 
result was to cause the pushing on of rubber planting 
in Ceylon and Malaya to an extent that put even the 
tea boom quite into the shade, and which is second only, 
as far as tropical crops are concerned, to the coffee 
industry of Brazil. We talk of the wonderful British 
industry of rubber, but it is worth while to notice that 
the value of the entire export, though rubber is worth 
so much more per pound than coffee, is barely one-third 
of that of the export of coffee from Southern Brazil. 
From this time onward, the export of rubber from 
Ceylon and Malaya went steadily and rapidly forward, 
and we may quote the Ceylon figures to illustrate this— 
1901 3 tons 6 cwt. 
1904. 34 tons. 
1907 354 tons. 
I9QI2 4,506 tons. 
1916 24,000 tons approximately. 
The Brazilian export, it may be noted, is about 40,000 
tons. 
In 1907 there occurred the Ceylon boom, a precursor 
of the great boom of three years later in London,- but 
the Ceylon people knew better what they were doing, 
and did not throw money away. Ceylon raised every 
penny that was possible, and started many companies, 
chiefly in the Malay States, where suitable land was 
more readily available, and at the present time these 
