and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— June, 1912, 565 



125,C00 acres are under Hevea Brasiliensis. It 

 has been estimated that at the end of 1911 

 there were 50 British rubber companies work- 

 in Sumatra, with an issued capital of approxi- 

 mately £5,000,000, and a nominal capital of 

 about £6,200,000. The capital invested in the 

 cultivation of rubber on the east coast of Suma- 

 tra is approximately — British, £5,000,000, Dutch 

 £3,000,000, German, £80,000, Belgian, £62,000, 

 and Swedish, £20,000, a total of £8,162,000. 



Some 30 companies are now producing rub- 

 ber, but the majority of them have only re- 

 cently commenced tapping, and that on a very 

 small scale. Official figures are not yet avail- 

 able, but it is estimated that the q lantity of 

 plantation rubber exported from the east coast 

 of Sumatra during 1911 amounted to approxi- 

 mately 677 tons, of which about 550 tons were 

 shipped to London. — Board of Trade Journal, 

 May 9. 



GOST OF RUBBER PRODUCTION 

 IN MALAYA. 



The majority of investors in rubber plantation 

 companies have long since realised that the most 

 rapid growth and the largest yields ar6 to be 

 associated with estates in the Malay Peninsula ; 

 in fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that 

 an average yield of 250 lb. per acre per annum 

 can be expected from six-year-old trees in 

 Malaya, as against one of 155 lb. per acre in 

 Ceylon, These satisfactory results were not 

 known to the pioneers, but it is a peculiar coin- 

 cidence that the Malay Peninsula appears to 

 have been selected by Government authorities 

 as an area which would stand a somewhat heavy 

 rate of taxation. It has been suggested by 

 many leaders of the plantation industry that 

 the reason why costs of production are so much 

 higher in Malaya than elsewhere is that the taxes 

 in the form of rent payable to the Government 

 each year, drainage assessments, and the ad 

 valorem duty oi 2£ per cent are excessively high, 

 and represent several pence per lb on the cost of 

 rubber. Some little correspondence has been 

 published in the press with regard to this, Gov- 

 ernment officials maintaining that it is by no 

 means criminal to tax a successful industry, and 

 to use the revenue derived by such means for 

 the development of poorer states. 



Higher Management Costs. 

 While we admit that all this taxation has 

 quite a marked effect on the cost of production, 

 we cannot agree with the suggestion sometimes 

 thrown out that taxation i« Malaya j§ the. main 



offender. In the first place, we know only to our 

 regret that the costs of cooly labour in Malaya 

 are far in excess of those in Ceylon ; in point of 

 factthe dollar in Malaya appears to be only equal 

 to the rupee of Ceylon in its purchasing capa- 

 city. Again we know that a salary of £500 or 

 £700 in Malaya for young managers is very fre- 

 quent, whereas in Ceylon such a salary would be 

 considered quite good, and would only be given 

 to men with considerable experience. Ceylon 

 will always on account of these difficulties be 

 able to stand the strain of smaller annual re- 

 turns. Cooly costs, costs of European manage- 

 ment, and even also of London management, 

 are far greater today in connection with rubber 

 than they have ever been with tea companies in 

 other countries. We, therefore, think that these 

 features must in fairness be allowed for when 

 criticism is being offered on the subject of taxa- 

 tion by Government, and its effect on the cost of 

 producing rubber.— India Rubber Journal, Apr 20. 



RUSSIAN GROWN TEA. 



Experiments in the cultivation of tea and other 

 sub tropical products are being carried out by 

 the Imperial Russian Government at an estate at 

 Chakva, near Batoum. The estate consists of 

 about 43,000 acres and covers what was formally 

 a hopeless tangle of rank vegetation. During the 

 last few years a considerable portion of this ter- 

 ritory has been cleared and improved. It has a 

 western frontage of about two miles along the 

 Black Sea, from which it stretches eastwards, 

 and is enclosed by a semi-circle of hills affording 

 protection against the cold winds from the 

 mountains, The soil is principally red clay, black 

 earth, and sandstone, with a little limestone in 

 patches. The fields are partly on the plains and 

 partly on the low hills, which in some cases have 

 been terraced as a protection against erosion. 

 During the early stages about 3,000 bushels were 

 planted to the acre, but this number has been 

 increased until about 4,400 bushels are now 

 crowded into that area. The leaf is picked four 

 times during the season, the first picking yield- 

 ing the superior quality, although the second is 

 more abundant, and curing is done in a modern 

 factory, where every care is taken to ensure 

 cleanliness. The machinery used in cleaning, 

 curling and packing is mostly of British manu- 

 facture. The Uhakva tea somewhat resembles in 

 taste the teas of Ceylon and India, and it is sold 

 principally in Poland and Central Asia. A few 

 trial shipments have been made to the United 

 States, but no regular demand from this market 

 has developed as a result. -^American Grocery 



