190 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



played of the three materials iu the manufac- 

 ture of which the company proposes to engage. 

 An income sufficient to pay good dividends can, 

 we are assui ed.be made out of acetone and 

 fusel oil, leaving the company free to txperi- 

 ment with synthetic rubber for a couple of 

 years before a factory is erected. Ntt a 

 single rubber man is on the board, and the 

 list of directors is headed by Sir Willigm Ram- 

 say, whose scientific achievements entitle him 

 to respect, but whose optimism connected him 

 with a company scheme for the extraction of 

 gold from sea-water, and with a number of 

 other ventures of no greater practical utility. 

 In order to secure underwriting it is hinted 

 that the vendors may be induced to part with 

 some of their shares at 12s 6d., but there is no 

 grtat rush for the piivilege of subscribing, 

 and to exchange plantation shares for synthetics 

 would be to exchange the substance for the 

 shadows. — Truth, Juno 26. 



WILL SYNTHETIC RUBBER BECOME AN 

 AUXILIARY TO PLANTATION. 



July 10th. 



Dear Sir, — I have been reading a lot lately 

 about the great synthetic rubber scare, a sub- 

 stance which now seems fairly on the way to 

 becoming a success, that is to say, a substance 

 of some considerable commercial importance, if 

 cheaply produced. From the time we started 

 planting out rubber on our Ceylon estates, it 

 always struck me that the two terrors we had 

 to lace were : firsr, the scientific man, and, 

 seconoly, the dearth uf labour tor cultivation, 

 as the order of the day seemed to be to cram 

 it in, iu every corner ot the tropical world, 

 utterly regardless of ever being able to harvest 

 it — to tay nothing of finding a sale for it at 

 paying prices, 'lhe one and only reply i ever 

 got was : -' You must remember, that realiy the 

 best thing that can happen to our pJaniation 

 rubber is a tail to 2s. 6d. or 3s., when up will 

 go the consumption ot it for innumerable pur- 

 poses, for which its present-day price is pro- 

 hibitive." One thing, I think, seems pretty 

 clear to most minds, and that is, that the suc- 

 cess of synthetic would be sure to cause a 

 halt in the preseut-day great rush into rubber 

 planting. Now, putting synthetic at say Is. 6d. 

 and other rubbers at 2s. 6d., average 2s., what, 

 1 ask, would be the probable result ? I think 

 it would result in South America closing down, 

 and such a demand lor rubber ioi flooiing and 

 roofing of buildings, that au immediate rise in 

 price of all kinds would take place, wheu the 

 plantation average, depend upon it, would soon 

 be the same as it is today, if not higher, and a 

 good healthy price with a general production 

 hardly equal to the demand, which is bound 

 to be very great. 



I think it is very doubtful, too, if any artificial 

 substance will ever be made to take the place 

 of real rubber, as regards general utility and 

 to stand wear and tear, so that while synthetic 

 may become the means of increasing the uses 

 of rubber generally it will never succeed pro- 

 perly in that direction, save by the veneering 



of it with our pure plantation kinds. I have not 



the least doubt that if 75 per cent of synthetic 

 and 25 per cem pure rubber be used, t.,e latter 

 lor veneering floor cloth and flooring blocks, 

 etc., an immense demand will spiiLg up for all 

 kinds — and a demand, too, we can never look for 

 with our pure article, certainly not at its pre- 

 sent price. 



In conclusion, I do not think we have much to ' 

 fear for some yeara to come. — Yours faithlully, 



L. S. P. 



EASTERN TAPPING EXPERIMENTS. 



We are glad to be able to report that our 

 criticism on the Ceylon experiments, and the 

 publicity thereby given to them, has aroused 

 considerable interest iu the plantation industry. 

 It has been decided, through the agency of the 

 Rubber Growers' Association, to circularise the 

 leading companies now in possession of tappable 

 areas, requesting them to carry out at finite 

 experiments in frequency of tapping. In order 

 that all should be lully advised, a reprint of the 

 article refeired to by us last week, in which the 

 criticisms made by "The India-Rubber Journal" 

 are outlined, is published. This is the first time, 

 to our knowledge, that a recognised public body 

 has taken such a deep interest in the detailed 

 work of the estate, and we trust that the result 

 will be reliable. 



In the form supplied for filling up by 

 superintendents, the following intoimation is 

 asked for : — Number ot trees; period over which 

 experiments were conducted ; total amount of 

 dry rubber obtained during period (including 

 scrap) ; method of tapping, whether on the 

 one-third or one-quarter system ; inches ot baik 

 excised during experiment ; age of trees ; aver- 

 age girth ol tr ees ; how long the trees were tap- 

 ped before this experiment. It is further sug- 

 gested in the form isaued' by the Rubber 

 Growers' Association that four periodicities shall 

 be experimented with, viz., tapping once ev^ry 

 three days, once eveiy four days, once every 

 five days, aud once every seven days. It is 

 assumed that if the experiment is carried on for 

 90 days the number ot tappiugs will be 30 tor 

 the three days period, 20 tor the four days, 18 

 for the five days, and 13 for the seven days 

 period. These then are the patticulars asked 

 for officially. 



It seems almost superfluous for us to state 

 that we are delighted at this evidence of 

 interest oar criticisms have aroused. We are, 

 nevertheless, much more pleased with the 

 prospect of getting information of a reliable 

 character direct from the planters, which may 

 have a very great influence ou the labour pro- 

 blem in the East, and the preservation ot healthy 

 rubber trees. It should be pointed out, how- 

 ever, that experiments regarding periodicity of 

 tapping are not quite so simple as the layman 

 may first imagine. In order to carry out experi- 

 ments which may be of value, it is necessary that 

 them should, as far as is practically possible, be 

 absolute eqaality on all points except that which 

 remains to be determined, Once the determi- 



