126 



is to reserve the richest rubber regions, and if the natives have 

 invaded these regions to clear them out. To make, in fact, forest 

 reserves for Landolphias as has been done in the Malay Peninsula 

 for Gutta percha and put them under the management of 

 Europeans. The return given by these vines is however, very 

 small. A three or four year-old Landolphia gave to Mr. BOOTH 

 a ball of rubber about i£ inch through and he says an energetic 

 and skilful rubber collector can hardly collect 9 such balls in a day, 

 30 to 35 of which make a pound. Six vear-old vines gave four 

 balls, but then the old stems after milking it appears very apt 

 to die. 



This certainly does not seem very promising. 

 A Dutch planter M. Seembruggen in Tijdschrift voor Negver- 

 heeid en Landboow , Batavia, June 1906, discusses the cultivation 

 of Willughbeia in Java. He considers that rubber trees can only 

 be cultivated by people who can afford to wait many years, while 

 rubber-vines can be more quickly grown. Our experience in the 

 Straits is that rubber vines are much slower to give a return 

 than rubber trees. But that the rubber must be obtained by 

 mechanical methods from the vines. Apparently by beating the 

 bark on blocks of wood. He describes the method of cultivating 

 Willughbeia which not being a native of Java would have to be 

 introduced from Sumatra. The objection raised by some people 

 that this introduction, cultivation and preparation would be too 

 costly, he meets by saying that all these introductions are costly 

 and slow. All the Castilloa in Java was raised from one plant, 

 Hevea braziliensis from some few seeds. Willughbeia firma need 

 only be introduced once. One could make innumerable marcottes. 

 and from the plants too one could obtain a large quantity 

 rSv,' he sa y s are good eatable fruits. As a matter of tact 



Willughbeia firma is not at all easy to reproduce by marcotting. 

 It takes very many years to fruit. Bushes of it cultivated in the 

 Botanic Gardens for about twenty years have certainly flowered 

 r twice pi 

 fruited here more ea_ 

 germinate. Recently I saw in Malacca a very small plantation on 

 extremely bad soil belonging to a Chinaman who had some years 

 ago borrowed enough money to plant a few trees of Para rubber 

 He planted too some Willughbeias . From the latter now grown 

 liS^Y r ar L ge clum P s he obtained nothing nor was there an 

 likelihood of his ever getting any rubber from them. From the 

 Para rubber he was making a g good profit. It might be possible to 

 profitably, but at present it seems very 

 3it of producing numerous small stems from 

 growlh t mili^ CUlt t0 ^ et 4 rubbed at all, and their verysk£ 

 ton ™'h tvf Consider *bly against their ever playing an mpor 

 tont part ,n the production of the world's rubber supply, after the 



exptit^ 658 6 f ° reStS in which the >* ° CCUr ^ ^ 



H. N. RIDLEY. 



