March, 1910.] 



197 



Saps and Exudations. 



favourably with that of rubber, for 

 whereas the output of rubber at the 

 present rate of planting is bound to 

 increase enormously year by year, the 

 collection of really first-class gutta- 

 percha, so called gutta mera, has not 

 only not been progressing but has 

 steadily declined during the last decade 

 owing to the habit of the natives of 

 destroying the trees for obtaining the 

 gutta. That annihilation has been 

 going on at such an alarming rate that 

 the felling of trees is now prohibited in 

 several countries. Moreover, it must be 

 borne in mind that the best kinds of 

 gutta trees only grow in a com- 

 paratively very narrow area, comprising 

 parts of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and the 

 Malay Peninsula, and that whatever old 

 trees in larger numbers are left, occur 

 only in places difficult of access. It 

 should, he thinks, be further considered 

 that submarine telegraph cables, in the 

 construction of which for insulating 

 purposes gutta-percha is principally 

 used, will continue to be required for a 

 good many years to come on account of 

 the greater reliability and safety in 

 working compared Avith the wireless 

 systems, and that iD addition to new 

 cables to be laid, old ones have to be 

 replaced. An idea of the quantity of 

 gutta-percha required for this purpose 

 is obtained if it is remembered that, as 

 calculated by a living authori ty on gutta- 

 percha, no less than 29,000,000 trees have 

 been destroyed to provide gutta-percha 

 necessary for the cables already laid all 

 over the world. Supposing, asks the 

 writer, only half these cables were to be 

 relaid without taking into account new 

 ones to be constructed, where are the 

 trees from which the requisite genuine 

 gutta-percha is to be obtained ? 



The idea of cultivating gutta trees, he 

 continues, has so far not been carried out 

 except to an insignificant extent, princi- 

 pally because the trees cannot be profit- 

 ably tapped before 13-15 years, during 

 which the capital invested would give 

 no return. Moreover, the gutta obtain- 

 ed from leaves and twigs has hitherto 

 had to be extracted by a chemical 

 process which affected the properties of 

 the gutta in such a manner as to make 

 it practically unfit for cable require- 

 ments. This drawback has now been 

 remedied, and there is every reason to 



believe that, at no distant date, leaf 

 gutta will be in every way as good as 

 tapped gutta. It will then be possible to 

 get regular and handsome returns from 

 gutta leaves, from trees four years old 

 and upwards, which returns will be 

 augmented by the profit from tapped 

 gutta as soon as the trees attain an 

 age of 13 years. However, even with- 

 out relying on the leaf-product, invest- 

 ment in a gutta plantation pays well, 

 considering that 15 year old trees, 

 yielding best qiaality, fetch $10 to $20 per 

 tree if retailed to the Malays for felling. 

 The upkeep of an estate costs very little 

 after the trees are a few years old ; in 

 fact, the trees seem to prefer surround- 

 ing jungle. 



The writer when visiting the East last 

 year made a special point of investi- 

 gating the possibilities of this culti- 

 vation and of examining the trees then 

 growing at Buitenzorg. At the best the 

 growth was miserably poor. He then 

 wrote : — 



" I saw the trees which were planted 

 on the 8th February, 1881 ; many of them 

 were only about twenty-four inches in 

 girth, though the giant of the block 

 measured 5| feet in circumference at a 

 yard from the ground. The trees have 

 been tapped on the single oblique and 

 herring-bone systems, and also on 

 the halt circle horizontal plan. Every 

 effort has been made to procure good 

 yields from these old trees. The cuts 

 have healed very badly, and the yield 

 only averaged 89 grams per tree per 

 annum. With gutta-percha out of 

 fashion, a wait of fifteen to twenty 

 years, and a yield of about one-fifth of 

 a pound per annum, I do not see any 

 reason why the Dutch Government 

 should be envied. Even if the price of 

 the raw product should show a big rise, 

 it is doubtful whether the cultivation 

 of palaqium will ever be as remuner- 

 ative as Hevea brasiliensis. The Govern- 

 ment Plantation is, according to inform- 

 ation locally obtained, about 1,500 acres 

 in extent ; a block of the same size and 

 age of Hevea would have placed the 

 island of Java in quite a different posi- 

 tion to-day." 



That was in May, last year, and we 

 still see no reason for altering the 

 meaning of the notes then penned. 



