35G 



[November, 1912. 



RUBBER GROWING AS A VILLAGE 

 INDUSTRY. 



To the Editor of the Tropical Agriculturist. 



Dear Sir. — The enomous fortunes that are being acquired through 

 rubber cultivation and the adaptability of the rubber plant to low-lands 

 hitherto under paddy has suggested the question whether it would not 

 be worth while to encourage the paddy cultivator to grow rubber instead 

 of such little-paying products as paddy, so as to give him the opportunity 

 of participating in the present prosperity of the planting community. 



The prospect which the proposal holds out is, of course, very bright. 

 If an acre of paddy is taken to yield 3C bushels worth Rs. 60, or, taking 

 two crops a year, 45 bushels worth Rs. 90, the anual profit per acre will 

 approximately be Rs. 25 or Rs, 40 respectively. 



On the other had rubber in its fifth or sixth year should give a profit 

 of Rs. 150 or Rs. 200 and a few years later at least Rs. 300. 



The difficulties in the way of the paddy cultivator giving up his field 

 to rubber growing are :— 



(1) The possession of land by more than one owner and the difficulty 

 of getting all to agree to any new departure from existing 

 customs. 



(2) The hesitation on tli9 part of cultivators, who are men of small 

 means and ideas, to venture upon any new and comparatively 

 large undertaking. 



(3) The inherent attachment to paddy cultivation. 



(4) The cost of converting paddy iuto rubber fields. 



(5) The lack of capital on the part of the goiya to keep himself and 

 his family provided with food and other necessaries of life and to 

 cultivate and maintain his rubber land for five to six years until 

 it begins to yield a return. 



If villagers can be induced to form themselves into co-operative credit 

 societies and take advantage of the provisions of the Co-operative Credit 

 Ordinance, they should be able to get over the financial difficulties which 

 the proposal presents. The debts contracted will, of course, have to wait 

 for repayment till such time as the rubber comes into bearing, so that it 

 will probably take eight or ten years before the cultivator will possess an 

 uncumbered property and a respectable and steady income for, taking 

 Rs. 300 as the cost of bringing an acre of rubber into cultivation, it will 

 be at least seven years before that sum could be recovered. 



Whether the ordinary small field-owner is capable of the sacrifice of 

 his ancestral paddy field is, I think, doubtful. 



Owing to these obstacles it will be only possible for a stray individual 

 who is less conservative and more enterprising than the generality of his 

 brethren to rise to the occasion. There are cases (chiefly in the Kalutara 

 district) where the goiyas, carried away by the rush into rubber around 



