oq 



to cut down all the inferior Para trees in the district and 

 reserve only the few selected trees for seed supplies. That 

 would be a costly, though necessary, piece of work. 



The best that Java planters can do is to make certain 

 tliat their seeds are from old trees which have been lightly 

 tapped and proved to yield abundance of rubber; select 

 the \^idely planted areas, free from disease, on such 

 estates, and you cannot go far wrong. There are plenty 

 of estates with old, widely-planted, good-yielding trees, 

 such as Vallambrosa, Bukit Rajah, Highlands and Low- 

 lands, Pataling, Selangor, Anglo-Malay, etc., which give 

 a guarantee. There are millions of seeds to spare, and 

 Java can have the best of them, despite the absurd sug- 

 gestion in the letter under discussion. 



Java and the Rubber Exhibition. 



The planters are taking an active interest in the forth- 

 coming London Rubber Exhibition, though beyond show- 

 ing small quantities of rubber and gutta-percha their 

 exhibition must necessarily be of an illustrative character. 

 Dr. Treub is to take the chair at a meeting to be held at 

 an early date, and our readers will be duly informed of 

 the pi-ogramme decided upon. 



Sumatra Ahead. 



I left Batavia at 11.30 a.m. on May 19th, on the 

 s.s. \'an der Lyn, bound for Belawen-Deli, where we were 

 due to arrive on the morning of the 23rd. Everybody 

 is aware how hot and moist it is in the Java Sea and 

 Malacca Straits, but very few know how to meet the 

 oppressive atmosphere so well as the officers on board. 

 It is the first boat on which I have travelled where the 

 authorities have had the good sense to arrange for all 

 meals on deck. The innovation met with the sincere 

 approval of all the passengers, and I only wish we could 

 live in the same way this side of Suez. It is warm 

 enough on deck, but it is unbearable below. 



Sumatra Rubber Districts. 



My first tour was through the Langkat Residency, 

 where I inspected Blankahan and Soengei Roean Estates, 

 owned by the Langkat Sumatra Rubber Company; Soen- 

 gei Gerpa Estate, the property of the United Langkat 



