and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— May, 1910. 469 



money invested in rubber plantations is Bri- 

 tish; it is only lately that the foreigner has 

 come in at all," 



" What do you think of the present position, 

 Sir Frank ? " 



" Well, I think, of course, that there are far 

 too many new rubber companies being pro- 

 moted. It is difficult to understand how the 

 flotation of one or two and sometimes three 

 companies a day can possibly be justified. " 



" There is, of course, an enormous demand for 

 rubber, which is the raw material of many in- 

 dustries 9 " 



"No doubt," said Sir Frank, "that some of the 

 companies recently promoted are quite sound ; 

 but there are many that none but a lunatic, so 

 one would think, would dream of trusting with 

 his money." 



" To what particular faults of promotion do 

 you refer ? " 



" Over-capitalisation for one thing, extra- 

 vagant prices paid for the estates for another, 

 and lack of foresight. Immense areas are now 

 being rapidly put under rubber, and three diffi- 

 culties will have to be faced by the directors of 

 rubber companies. The first is the labour 

 question. With large areas put under cultivation 

 there will be a corresponding demand for labour 

 and though no doubt it can be met by China, 

 India, and Java, it cannot be met at once. With 

 this demand for labour, competition to secure 

 such as there is will be keen, and wages will rise 

 in proportion to the scarcity experienced, 



" Secondly, there will be a great demand 

 for competent, trained European supervisors, 

 and here the shortage will be acutely felt, and 

 competition to secure the best men has already 

 brought about a great rise in salaries. Then 

 until time has elapsed to permit of the due 

 training of Europeans, incompetent men will, 

 and must, be appointed to important positions. 

 We shall therefore find increased expenditure 

 augmented by wasteful management. 



"Thirdly, at no distant date, certainly not 

 later than 1915, the production of cultivated rub- 

 ber will be enormous, and unless the demand 

 keeps pace with the supply there will be a drop 

 in prices which will severely tax resources of all 

 but the oldest and soundest companies, besides 

 killing the wild-rubber trade of South America 

 altogether, for I believe wild Para rubber can- 

 not be collected for much less than three shil- 

 lings a pound." 



" You think that reduction in price, com- 

 bined with the increase of cost, will prove 

 disastrous ? " 



"'Disastrous' may be too large a word, 

 for I think old-established, well-managed and 

 moderately capitalised companies — especially 

 those with a good reserve or a second cultiva- 

 tion like tea, sugar or coconuts— will be able to 

 stand the strain, but that recently established 

 companies will only be kept going with diffi- 

 culty, and that badly managed and greatly over- 

 capitalised companies will inevitably collapse. 

 For all that, there will have been established a 

 great commercial, I may also say, imperial asset; 



and, when things have righted themselves, there 

 will remain a great industry of which Britain 

 may well be proud." 



An imperial asset rubber has already become, 

 and wild-cat finance must not be allowed to 

 obscure the essential and permanent benefits to 

 be derived from the rapid development of its 

 cultivation and its uses. Sir Frank Swetten- 

 ham's warning should not go unheeded. — The 

 Rubber World, March 31. 



PRODUCTS OF THE PHILIPPINE 

 ISLANDS. 



COFFEE, COCOA AND COCONUTS 

 OUTTURNS DURING 1908 AND 1909. 



We have been making enquiries of the British 

 Consul-General in Manila, with a view to em- 

 bodying this and similar information from 

 elsewhere in our forthcoming Handbook and 

 Directory, as to the outputs of tropical pro- 

 ducts in the Philippine Islands in the past two 

 years. In the following tables— for which we are 

 indebted to Mr Edward Lillingston Steuart 

 Gordon, the Acting Consul-General — Northern 

 Luzon, comprises that part of the country 

 lying to the north of Manila; Southern Luzon, 

 the remainder of the chief island. The Viz- 

 vayas comprise all the islands lying between 

 Luzon and Mindanao including Mindoro. The 

 statistics are based on information supplied by 

 the Bureau of Agriculture. The Director of the 

 Bureau states that considerable experimental 

 planting of coffee and cocoa has been going on 

 during the past few years, so that the output in 

 the near future should show the effects of this. 

 Also that where only a few trees of one or 

 both are grown on a farm, even if in bearing, 

 they and the product often escape the enu- 

 merator. For these reasons it would be safe pro- 

 bably to add 25 per cent to the figures given. 

 Those for coconuts are substantially correct. 



Coffee is grown in all the provinces of the 

 islands, except those of Bataan, Zam bales and 

 IlocosSur, on the west coast of Northern Luzon: 

 in most parts of the country however, to a very 

 limited extent. The largest producing provinces 

 are Cebu with 29,468 lb., and Occidental Negros 

 with 22,317 lb. in 1909 ; and close upon the 

 heels of the latter comes Batangas which in- 

 creased its production from 4,184 lb. in 1908 to 

 21,936 lb. in 1909. The figures are as follows:— 



1908. 



1909. 



Northern Luzon 

 Southern Luzon 

 Vizcayas 

 Mindanao 



Total 



Acres, lb. Acres, lb. 



.. 820 44,735 785 31,214 



. 289 15,774 563 28,429 



.. 894 44,649 1,124 69,689 



,. — — 32 2,384 



.2,003 105,158 2,504 131,716 



Cebu also heads the list of provinces produ- 

 cing Cocoa, with an output in 1909 of 94,491 lb. 

 Orienta Negros comes second with 49,680 lb. 

 and Pangasinau third with 20,135 lb. Non- 

 producing provinces are Cagayau, Isabela and 

 Pampanga, The production tables read : 



