482 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



there still exist such things as an occasional 

 misfire, or a slow working charge. Care must 

 also be taken to mark each particular plug, and 

 to see that each charge is properly fired off. In 

 the States it is averred that men are now en- 

 gaged solely in this work, and with experienced 

 men dynamite farming is perfectly safe, certain, 

 and advantageous. 



It would be an interesting experiment to see 

 the system applied in Ceylon where the surface 

 soil is of such a poor character generally, while 

 it would also be equally interesting to see it ap- 

 plied as a clearing force for opening up new 

 lands. Any Ceylon agriculturist who tries the 

 experiment may rest assured that it is a tried 

 system, and not one with its value yet to de- 

 monstrate. 



RUBBER PLANTATION COSTS. 



Notes from a Planter. 



An interesting article on '"Plantation Costs" 

 appeared in your Journal of August 10th, 1912. 



In this article it was pointed out that the cost 

 of production must be considerably lowered in 

 the near future if plantation companies are to 

 hold their own against future competition. Un- 

 fortunately no reason was given in this article 

 for the present high cost on some estates. The 

 chief reason will probably be found to be that 

 these estates have commenced tapping in some 

 cases a very large number of young trees whose 

 yield is, of course, at first very small, and that 

 this has raised the cost all round. As these trees 

 grow older and yield more, the cost will naturally 

 go down considerably. 



In analysing the chief sources of expenditure, 

 viz., cooly, European and directorate, no figures 

 are given to show what the reduction of each of 

 these sources of expenditure would mean in the 

 cost per lb. of rubber, and in this connection 

 there are two statements in this article, viz., 

 "only by continuation of the present high prices 

 for rubber can the comparative high salaries (of 

 Europeans) be paid, 11 and again further on, "the 

 cooly is more worthy of his hire than many 

 others connected with the plantation industry," 

 which appear to me to be misleading, inasmuch 

 as they might cause the investor to believe that 

 if only the European salaries could be lowered 

 his dividends might be appreciably increased. 

 In this article I hope to show that not only is 

 the European more worthy of his hire than the 

 coolie, but also the bearing on the cost per lb. 

 of rubber which the reduction of either of these 

 sources of expenditure would have. 



Cost of European Supervision. 



With directors' charges I am not concerned, 

 and in most cases they would appear to be 

 reasonable enough. 



To begin with, let us take the cost of Euro- 

 pean supervision. On most estates the cost of 

 European supervision approximates $1"00 per 

 acre at the present time, though naturally this 

 cost depends entirely on the amount of rubber 

 in bearing, and we will therefore take it at $l - 5, 

 or 3s. 6d. per acre per month = 42s. per acre per- 

 annum. Taking the low average yield of 300 lb. 

 per acre, the cost per lb. of rubber would be 

 l-68d., with a yield of 400 lb. per acre r26d., 

 and with a yield of 500 lb. the cost per lb. would 

 be approximately Id, Supposing the salaries to 

 be capable of being reduced by one half, the 

 difference in the cost in the latter case would 

 be Jd. per lb., and later, with a production of 

 over 500 lb. per acre it would, of course, be less. 

 Coolie Costs. 



Now let us take the coolie side of the ques- 

 tion, and to illustrate the difference in cost on 

 different estates, I will take the highest and 

 lowest rates of pay which I actually know. The 

 highest pay is 60 cents for 275 trees to Chinese, 

 and the lowest is 2S cents for 300 trees to 

 Tamils. Taking the yield per tree at 2 lb. per 

 annum, and presuming the trees are tapped 

 daily throughout the year, in the one case the 

 tapping cost (apart from native superintendence) 

 will be 39 - 8 cents, or approximately lOj^d. per 

 lb., and in the other case- 17 cents, or 4Jd„ a 

 difference of 6d. per lb. 



This disparity of wages would therefore ap- 

 pear to be the crux of the matter, and the reason 

 for the high cost on some estates, and it is only 

 by combination of estates in the same neighbour- 

 hood that wages can be reduced or better value 

 obtained from the coolies, since it is practically 

 impossible for a manager to reduce his wages 

 or increase his coolies' task if his neighbour 

 is paying higher wages. If each estate was 

 required to send in to the district associa- 

 tions or direct to the Planters' Association of 

 Malaya statements showing the rate of wages 

 paid to each class of labour for tapping, the 

 number of trees in their tasks, number of cuts, 

 etc., and if these statements were incorporated 

 in a printed form by the Associations, it would 

 be possible for managers and directors to see 

 what wages were being paid in each district and 

 what value was being obtained for the wage, and 

 this would, I think, not only tend to uniformity 

 of tapping wages, but would also tend to lessen 

 the amount of crimping which at present exists. 

 Where wages are high and estates favourably 



