66 



soil and encourages the circulation of air, water, and 

 plant food. I commend the subject to the consideration 

 of those planters in East Java with whom I stayed. I 

 cannot think that Ceylon is wasting labour and money in 

 draining; it is just as essential for rubber cultivation as 

 for tea. 



Another point which struck me somewhat forcibly after 

 travelling through Perak was that in East Java very few 

 sugar estates were planting Para among the sugar canes. 

 A few may be doing this, but I did not see the properties. 

 I rather imagine that, judging from the huge extensions 

 in buildings and estates, and palatial bungalows, that 

 most sugar companies in Java are making very handsome 

 profits at the present time, and do not wish to adopt a 

 mixed cultivation. Sugar cultivation in Java affords an- 

 other instance of how that island can improve and retain 

 its crops. Its neighbours in the East are considering 

 the abandonment, or have already given up, the culti- 

 vation of sugar; but Java continues to grow it, and now 

 derives a very large revenue from this crop alone. 



Growth of Para Rubber in Java. 



Para rubber in Java is being mainly grown from sea- 

 level up to 1,000 feet; there are estates up to 2,200 feet 

 where this species is flourishing, but they are not very 

 numerous. In many Para districts there is a marked dry 

 season of many months' duration, and in others a more 

 or less continuous and abundant rainfall. Estates I visi- 

 ted had an annual rainfall of from 70 to over 200 inches; 

 the dry period lasting three to five months in each year. 

 The majority of the plantations are young, extensive 

 clearings dating from 1905 and 1906. I saw some well- 

 developed five-year-old trees on Soembermas and was in- 

 formed that older trees were to be seen on Passir Oet- 

 ging and other estates. The exports of Para rubber from 

 Java will not be very great this side of 1912 or 1913. 

 A few estates planted in 1906 and maintained in Para 

 alone will be harvesting their rubber in 191 2, but others 

 interplanted with various crops will be a little later. The 

 profits made from catch crops under rubber in Java are 

 sometimes enormous, and pay for all development subse- 

 quent to clearing. The estates can therefore afford to 



