:s4 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



available results only allow us to form an 

 estimate of the yield of rubber obtainable 

 during the first three or four years' tapping 

 and nothing more. But the success of the 

 industry depends upon the average yield 

 per year for twenty, thirty, or more 

 years ; to say the least the absence of 

 knowledge on this most essential point should 

 prevent the average rubber export from being 

 too dogmatic in his procrastinations as to the 

 ultimate relative value of rubber-yielding 

 species yet in the infancy of their trial. 



In order to determine the yield per unit of 

 bark it is obvious that the tapping operations 

 should be carried out sufficiently slow as to 

 permit of the accumulation of concentrated 

 latex possessing the maximum proportion of 

 caoutchouc, but not so slow as to render the 

 system of no practical value on an estate depen- 

 dant for its success on the constant employment 

 of a fixed, resident, native, labour force. If the 

 bark is removed too quickly the yield of caout- 

 chouc for every unit of bark removed will 

 be lower than what it ought to be ; such a 

 system would not suffice to maintain the trees 

 in perfect health, and labour would, to some 

 extent, be wasted. 



We suggest to our planting readers in the 

 tropics that very valuable data can be collected 

 by them on this most important point, and trust 

 that in the annual reports which will scon be 

 prepared the directors will insist on informa- 

 tion of this character being given. It is to the 

 advantage of overy sound property to give the 

 widest publicity to the statistics relating to the 

 rubber-producing capacity of the trees in terms 

 of the amount of bark excised. H. W. 



— India Rubber Journal, Dec. 16. 



OVER PRODUCTION OF RUBBER. 



A question which is much discussed among 

 rubber planters in British Asia, and even more 

 among the thousands of British investors in 

 plantation companies, ia whether there is danger 

 of overproduction. This is a very practical 

 question, and deserving of all the attention 

 that it has received, because the world is not 

 yet rich enough to spend millions of money 

 in promoting any enterprise without assur- 

 ances that it will not be thrown away. 



There may be some encouragement in the 

 fact that history has recorded so few examples 

 of "overproduction." Every grower of wheat 

 or cotton or cucumbers, for example, may not 

 always find a profitable or even a ready sale 



for his crops, but it can hardly be said that, 

 on the whole, overproduction of any of these 

 commodities has ever occurred. It is true 

 that when the cultivation of quinine bark was 

 once begun, so many persons engaged in it 

 on a large scale that the rate of profit declined 

 to an extent that caused some of the planters 

 to retire from the field. Yet probably mjoro 

 quinine is produced now than any time in the 

 past, and it is reasonable to suppose that it 

 pays the producers, or they would stop gathering 

 the stuff. Similarly, it was a common thing a 

 few years ago, in the United States, to hear 

 that cotton was no longer a paying crop, but 

 'he production has increased steadily in amount 

 and in years of largest production prices have 

 ranged higher than in former times, and the 

 cotton planters are becoming a wealthy class. 



It may be said, by the way, that quinine is 

 hardly a necessity in the sense that cotton and 

 rubber are, because substitutes for it can be 

 more readily named. In any event no one is 

 apt to use quinine who can avoid it, whereas 

 millions of people are anxious to acquire or use 

 more cotton and rubber than they can now 

 obtain, or pay for. This fact alone should be a 

 sufficient guarantee to the doubtful that over- 

 production of rubber is not likely to occur. And 

 so long as rubber — or any other commodity — is 

 a real necessity of life, it is going to pay some- 

 body to produce it. 



Still, it may be argued that it must be pos- 

 sible to plant too much rubber, and that it is 

 only wise to stop planting this side the danger 

 ine. To this it may be answered that, while 

 surprising yields have been gained on some plan- 

 tations, and while the same trees seem to yield 

 more and more rubber every year, the number 

 of cultivated trees now yielding is insignificant 

 compared with the actual consumption of rub- 

 ber. There are, it is true, some millions of 

 younger trees, planted some years later than the 

 trees now producing rubber, so that they will 

 not be tappable for some time to come, when 

 without doubt the total demand for rubber will 

 have been greatly increased, while the native 

 supplies will have been lessened. Any trees 

 which may be planted hereafter will be still 

 longer in coming to maturity, so that overpro- 

 duction at least does not seem to us imminent. 



A point of more immediate intorest is that 

 the intending investor in existing plantations 

 should convince himself (1) that the trees he 

 is asked to pay for can bo accounted for and 

 (2) that he does not pay too much for them, 

 —India Eubbcr World, Nov. 1. 



