and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— June, 1910. 569 



RUBBER IN THE F.M.S., JAVA 

 AND SUMATRA. 



MR. F. COPEMAN'S VIEWS. 



Mr FCopeman, of Messrs. Maclarenand Sons, 

 manager of the India Rubber Journal, and direc- 

 tor of some eighteen rubber companies, has 

 arrived in Ceylon after a tour in the Federated 

 Malay States, Java and Sumatra with his son 

 Mr. H F Copeman, who, we regret to hear, was 

 laid up with fever in Sumatra for a fortnight. 



Speaking to a Ceylon Observer representative, 

 he said that he had visited several of the big 

 properties in the Klang district, in Malacca, in 

 Perak, and in Province Wellesley. He had spent 

 five or six weeks in Java, going right through the 

 island and seeing all the best rubber estates, and 

 in Sumatra he had been to nearly all the best. 

 Tapping. 



In regard to tapping he had found that a very 

 common form everywhere now was the half- 

 herring bone and the basal V on trees of small 

 girth. On some estates, especially native-owned 

 property in the F.M.S., they were tapping trees 

 of too small a girth. On one native estate he 

 saw trees ten inches in girth being tapped with 

 a basal V three feet from the ground. There 

 was very little tapping in Java. Tapping on 

 anything like an extensive scale had not been 

 done yet, but it might be expected at the end of 

 this year. The growth there was slow although 

 the soil of the mountains of Java was superior to 

 the soil of the hills of Ceylon. Some of the finest 

 soil in the world was on the slopes of the Yang 

 Mountains in Java. There trees four years old 

 were being tapped at an altitude of about 1,200 

 feet. In Sumatra tapping was more carefully 

 done than in any of the countries he had visited. 

 The half and full herring bone systems were 

 used and there were very fine yields. 



General Cultivation. 



Speaking with regard to general cultivation 

 Mr. Copeman said that so far they had not, in 

 the F. M. S., Sumatra and Java, gone in for 

 intensive cultivation to the same degree as in 

 Ceylon ; in fact, it was quite exceptional to hear 

 of manure being used. The reason manure was 

 used so much in Ceylon was, probably, that 

 the soil of Ceylon was not nearly so good as 

 that in other parts of the East. In the growth 

 of the trees other countries beat Ceylon easily 

 on account of the soil, not because greater care 

 was taken in cultivation. Ceylon agriculture 

 was known the world over as the best. 



In Java rubber was generally grown with a 

 catch crop and the same applied to a certain 

 extent to Sumatra. In the former country they 

 were cutting out a good deal of the old Java 

 coffee and substituting robusta coffee, which 

 gave an enormous yield. If the rubber were 

 planted in the old coffee land unquestionably 

 the growth was slower ; but if the coffee and 

 rubber were planted together, he did not think 

 there was very much difference between such 

 rubber and that planted alone, provided always 

 that wide planting methods were adopted. He 

 did not recommend anything closer than 20 ft. 

 by 20 ft. or 16 ft. by 24 ft. In planting robusta 

 coffee as a catch crop it was best to plant be- 

 tween the rows, and not in the row, because 

 when the coffee grew up and the rubber began 



to come into bearing, it interfered with the sup- 

 ervision of tapping operations. In Ceylon the 

 catch crop, of course, was nearly always tea. 

 In some parts of Java cacao was grown very suc- 

 cessfully, as an inter-crop rather than a catch 

 crop. Most of the estates in the F.M.S. were 

 growing rubber alone. In Malacca and Pro- 

 vince Wellesley tapioca was grown as a catch 

 crop and, in some notable cases, sugar. 

 The Preparation of Raw Rubber. 



"I do not see any difference worth naming 

 in the preparation of raw rubber," said Mr 

 Copeman, in response to further questions, 

 "the methods are much about the same. I hole- 

 that although Ceylon may be a year or eighteen 

 months behind the Straits and Sumatra the 

 Ceylon rubber, when it comes into bearing, will 

 be found to be every bit as good, and the yields, 

 I should think, will be about the same." 

 Plantation Rubber. 



"I stand by plantation rubber. I do not 

 want to express any opinion with regard to re- 

 cent flotations, being interested in flotations 

 myself, but I stand very firmly indeed by plan- 

 tation rubber and believe in its future. I would 

 place first the Klang district of the Federated 

 Malay States, after that Sumatra, and Ceylon last, 

 behind even Java. When Ceylon rubber comes 

 really into bearing 1 do not think the yields will 

 be any less than those obtained in the Straits and 

 Sumatra but as a rubber growing country I prefer 

 the Federated Malay States and Sumatra." 

 The Future of Rubber. 



"As far as the price of rubber is concerned," 

 added Mr Copeman, "I do not see any prospect 

 of an immediate fall or of any very substautial 

 fall for the next year or more. After that I do 

 think we shall have a very substantial fall and 

 I think the price will gradually come down. I 

 think that the highest price has now been 

 reached. I cannot see any immediate sub- 

 stantial fall. Not only are the present prices 

 absolutely abnormal but the increase in con- 

 sumption during the past few years has been 

 very gradual, we have never had a very big in- 

 crease. I do not think the supply will be too 

 great for many years to come because of the 

 many new uses to which rubber can be put. 

 Plantation rubber will pay well when wild rub- 

 ber will not pay for the collection. 



TOBACCO GROWING IN BURMA. 



A FALLING OFF : IN SPITE OF PROTECTION. 



A correspondent writes to the Rangoon 

 Gazette : — " It is remarkable that at a time when 

 an important duty on tobacco imported by sea 

 has been imposed, the production of locally 

 grown tobacco in Burma should have fallen off 

 by close on 5,000 acres. The offical report gives 

 the total acreage under tobacco in 1908-09 as 

 58, 103 acres whereas in the previous year the 

 figures were 63,070. All districts in Burma grow 

 tobacco except three. The largest acreage is 

 given as in the Henzada District. There is no 

 doubt much grown in Aungyi, as in the hilly 

 parts of the Province, which escapes enumera- 

 tion. The difficulties in raising an excise tax on 

 tobacco grown in the more remote parts of the 

 Province would be enormous.— -M. Mail May, 17, 



71 



