179 
A GOVERNMENT  REPORT  ON  RUBBER. 
In  a report  on  “ Agriculture  in  the  Tropical  Islands  of  United 
States,”  by  Mr.  O.  F.  CoOK,  botanist  in  charge  of  investigations 
in  tropical  agriculture,  less  than  two  pages,  under  the  heading 
“ Rubber  and  Gutta-percha,”  form  the  single  reference  to  the  mat- 
ter under  discussion.  The  spirit  in  which  Mr.  CoOK  writes  is 
decidedly  unfavourable  to  the  formation  of  rubber  plantations.  He 
says,  for  example  : “ Notwithstanding  widespread  interest  and  the 
investment  of  millions  of  dollars,  it  cannot  be  said  that  rubber  cul- 
ture has  passed  the  experimental  stage,  if  indeed  that  period  has 
been  fairly  reached.”  But  there  is  no  reference  to  any  experiment 
made  in  any  country,  or  to  the  results,  in  such  detail  as  will  enable 
the  reader  to  look  into  the  subject'further  with  a view  to  satisfying 
himself  as  to  the  present  status  of  rubber  cultivation,  or  to  infes- 
tieate  the  reasons  for  “the  investment  of  millions  of  dollars”  which 
is  still  going  on. 
Mr.  Cook  says  again;  “Moreover,  it  is  known  that  many  rubber 
plantations  established  with  the  most  lively  expectations  have  been 
abandoned  because  the  anticipation,  of  a profitable  yield  of  rubber 
from  cultivated  trees  proved  to  be.  fallacious.”  This  report  would 
have  been  more  complete  and  more  convincing  had  it  been  fol- 
lowed by  a list  of  such  plantations  and  of  their  locations.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  there  has  not  been  time,  since  the  systematic  plant- 
ing of  rubber  on  a commercial  scale  began  actively,  for  verv  manv 
of  the  plantations  to  becone  productive,  and,  so  far  as  we  can  learn, 
the  results  attained  have  been  such  as  to  encourage  very  manv 
others  to  engage  in  this  branch  of  planting.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  more  rubber  trees  have  been  planted  in  Ceylon,  the 
Malay  Peninsula,  Burma,  Mexico,  Central  America,  and  the  West 
Indies  during  the  last  twelve  months  than  in  any  previous  vear, 
and  in  the  list  of  plantations  on  record  in  the  hidia  Rubber  World 
office — which  includes  all  that  we  have  been  able  to  gain  any 
knowledge  of  during  the  past  ten  years — there  has  been  no  case 
of  abandonment  of  trees  once  planted.  Mr.  CoOK  admits,  how- 
ever, that  “similar  disappointments,  misapprehensions,  and  misre- 
presentations”— referring  to  the  prospectuses  of  certain  companies 
formed  to  plant  rubber  in  Mexico  and  Central  Africa — have,  of 
course,  marked  the  early  history  of  many  finally  successful  and 
important  industries.”  From  the  Consular  Report  for  igo2. 
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