given showing the total quantity of rubber exported from Para for 

 16 years past, from which we learn that in 1901, the last year for 

 which statistics are given 30,000 tons were exported from Para, of 

 which 12,000 tons went to the United Kingdom. On this the India 

 Rubber Journal exclaims : — 



" How completely these figures show the folly of thinking that 

 the addition of cultivated rubber will even in the distant future tend 

 to over production is obvious when is taken into account how many 

 acres of rubber trees are necessary for the production per annum 

 of one ton of rubber." 



Well at 190 trees to the acre — a common distance — and at 2lbs. 

 per tree it would take about 7 acres to produce, one ton of rubber. 

 We, therefore, cling to our folly and fully and firmly beiieve that 

 cultivated rubber, when it comes on the market in large quantities 

 is bound to effect the price of the product in the markets of the 

 world. No doubt it would suit the rubber trade if tons, and tons, 

 and tons of rubber were sent to market, but the producer has been 

 I nipped " by low prices too often not to make him a little cautious 

 in such a matter. And if what we have said has tended to prevent 

 rashness, we are quite satisfied. 



Fluctuations in the price of rubber. 



" Times of Ceylon" Comments Criticized. 



The following criticism of our comments on the interesting table 

 of rubber prices and other information supplied to us by Mr. F. M. 

 Wolff, of Hamburg, appears in the India Rubber Journal to hand 

 by this mail : — 



The position of the press in connection with the planting of rub- 

 ber is one of considerable difficulty, I have no doubt, but one or 

 two items which have been sent to me by members call for some com- 

 ment. In a Bulletin of this nature much can be said which would 

 be altogether out of place in the public press — that is, the future 

 of the industry can be discussed without incurring the danger of 

 the casual reader gaining an altogether wrong impression of the 

 reason for the discussion. It is altogether a different matter when 

 a paper of standing and credited with some knowledge of the rub- 

 ber industry publishes the remarkable paragraph which we give 

 underneath, and which evidently has struck them with dismay. I 

 have been asked by several planters who have been alarmed by the 

 paragraph to refer to the matter and give whatever explanations 

 are possible. It will be better to give the paragraph first, as it 

 appears in the Times of Ceylon. 



European prices for Para Rubber. — We are in receipt of a most 

 interesting communication from Mr. F. M. WOLFF, of Hamburg, 

 who, when in Ceylon, supplied us with much valuable information 

 on rubber and rubber prices. He also forwards us a table showing 



