4i § 



gets only twice as much. The rocks ahead are the possibility of 

 some imitation being manufactured that would ruin the market, and 

 the more probable possibility of some blight, canker, o: fungus 

 attacking the plants, and if not killing them, spoiling their rubber- 

 producing capacity. All Ceylon men know how a large area of one 

 kind of cultivation tends to produce disease, which, in a climate 

 such as this, where there are no marked season to check its ravage s, 

 may absolutely ruin everything. So far. however, white ants are 

 the only serious enemies that have been found. The Process 

 of Manufacture is exceedingly simple, but as it has hardly vet 

 advanced beyond the experimental stage, the planters do not 

 know what difficulties they may have to contend with when called 

 upon to produce 400 or 500 lbs. a day, as they would have to do if 

 they are going to pay the £30 or £50 profit per acre, to which they 

 aspire. And against their doing this I honestly see no in surmount* 

 able barrier so far, but we must not forget that these figures are 

 based entirely on the results of experiments on a small scale, nobody 

 vet having a large area of tapable trees, but >t appears from the 

 data we have to go on that an acre of land may reasonably be ex- 

 pected to carry 150 trees, each of which at six years old, should 

 give one pound of rubber annually. With rubber at present prices 

 this means a gross production of nearly /40 per acre. Expanses 

 should not be heavy, manufacture would cost little, and cultiva- 

 tion nothing. I should be inclined to advise Intending Investors 

 to wait another year or two. by which time many places will be in 

 bearing, and the real possibilities of the enterprise established. 

 One thing that appears evident is that Para rubber grows better 

 here than in Ceylon, and much Ceylon money and energy is being 

 brought into this country. As to getting good land, there is plenty 

 ot land to be had, but you have to go a long way off for it now. 

 Practically all the good land that is well situated has been taken up, 

 but could be bought from the owners at a price. The country is 

 very Insufficiently roaded, and the difficulties of establishing an 

 estate in the middle of the jungle without a road can only be 

 appreciated by those who have tried to do it. There are two 

 chief classes of land, on both of which rubber appears to grow 

 equally well. (i). The high land, a red or yellow soil, chiefly 

 laterite in various forms of decomposition, and (2), the alluvial, 

 black cl?.y land on the sea border. Both kinds have their advo- 

 cates, but on the principle that the richer soil should give the better 

 rc suits I should prefer the alluvial. 



Mr. RuniZKFOKD writes: — "In a recent issue of your paper there 

 appeared an interesting article on 'The Cultivation of the Rubber 

 Tree.' While the writer justly praised the quality of the cultivated 

 'Para' rubber from Ceylon, I would desire to point out that the 

 opinions expressed with regard to cultivated rubber from the Malay 

 Peninsula are not quite consistent with the facts. The writer 

 says: — "In many other British possessions situated in or near the 

 tropics the conditions are suitable for rubber cultivation, and con- 

 siderable success has attended its introduction into the Malay 

 Peninsula, but, although the produce has been satisfa< tory in 



