and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



181 



CEYLON TEA AND RUBBER- 



BY SIR HENRY" A. BLAKE, G.C.M.G. 



[Extract from paper read before the Royal 

 Colonial Institute^ 



The acreage under tea in 1906, which is the 

 last year for which I have complete returns, 

 was 461,260, and the total weight of the tea ex- 

 ported was 170,527,126 1b. The yield per acre 

 varies from 350 to 800 lb.— in one or two estates 

 even as much as 1,000 lb. has been obtained— 

 the greater weight of leaf in the lower levels 

 compensating for the superiority of flavour in 

 the higher. Tne average return was 370 lb. per 

 acre, on which at present a duty amounting to 

 £3 Is. 8d. per acre is paid on the tea imported 

 into the United Kingdom. The reports for 1907 

 show that the crop and prices are both good, 

 and the tea proprietors of Ceylon may be con- 

 gratulated upon excellent prospects and a posi- 

 tion as stable as they have enjoyed since the 

 hardy tea plant first replaced the ruined indus- 

 try of the coffee grower. 



The Ceylon Rubber Industry Today. 



I have given you some particulars of the 

 two great industries of tea and coconuts, the 

 former supplying in value 56'7 per cent, and 

 the latter 21 2 per cent, of the total exports. 

 But within the past four years another industry 

 has come to the front that widens the basis of 

 Ceylon prosperity, and bids fair to become the 

 second in value if not the leading export of the 

 island. In 1903 there were but 11,595 acres 

 planted in rubber. Then came a great rise in 

 the market price, and copitalists realised that 

 Ceylon possessed all the necessary capabilities 

 for the production of so valuable a crop. Land 

 was taken up in feverish haste, and every officer 

 of the Government who could assist in its 

 survey, settlement, and sale was devoted to the 

 duty of satisfying the demands of impatient 

 capitalists. In a colony where large numbers of 

 proprietary rights were undetermined the Gov- 

 ernment was bound to insure that every title 

 granted to purchasers should be valid and free 

 from claims, and in many cases this process 

 necessarily involved considerable delay ; but the 

 Government did everything in its power to ex- 

 pedite matters, with the result that up to the 

 middle of last year the area acquired and being 

 cleared for rubber was over 120,000 acres, and 

 companies had been formed with an aggregate 

 capital of £700,000. 



The Ceylonese, too, are taking up the plant- 

 ing of rubber, and experiments as to its cultiva- 

 tion under irrigation are being made by the 

 Botanic Department. It is, so far, growing well 

 in the North- West Province, and I see 



NO REASON WHY EXTENSIVE PLANTATIONS MAY 

 NOT YET BE MADE EVEN IN THE DRY REGIONS, 



where irrigation is available, 

 was proposed to have an 



In April, 1906, it 



Exhibition op Rubber, 

 including everything connected with its pro- 

 duction in the raw state, and of all the pro- 

 cesses of preparation and adaptation to the 

 various uses to which it is applied. After 

 consideration we decided that the Exhibition 

 should be built in the grounds of the Botanic 

 Gardens at Peradeniya, and be opened from 

 September 13th to 27th. We invited all rub- 

 ber-producing countries to send exhibits, and 

 were fortunate enough to secure as judges 

 three experts from London— Messrs. Brett, 

 Smithett and Devitt — whose decisions were 

 given after most exhaustive examination, and 

 whose lectures during the Exhibition, on the 

 preparation of rubber for the market, were 

 full of interest and^value to those engaged in 

 the cultivation. Each morning^a lecture was 

 delivered at the Exhibition by a member of 

 the scientific staff of the Botanic Department 

 of Ceylon, or by competent speakers from 

 other countries, and these lectures, with the 

 discussions that followed, were afterwards 

 produced in book-form by the Botanic De- 

 partment, and by Messrs. Ferguson of the 

 Ceylon Observer. These books contain nearly 

 all the practical information known about 

 the production and preparation of rubber up 

 to the time of the Exhibition. One of the 

 most interesting of the lectures was that 

 delivered by Mr. Herbert Wright, then 

 Controller of the Experiment Station at Pera- 

 deniya, but now, I believe, holding the res- 

 ponsible position of Editor of the Rubber 

 Journal. He accepted 60,000 tons of rubber 

 from wild sources as a constant annual quan- 

 tity, and taking 65,000 tons as the demand 

 for rubber in 1906, to be increased by a grow- 

 ing demand of 5, 000 tons annually, he assumed 

 that the demand for cultivated rubber would, 

 in 1917, require 60,000 tons, for the produc- 

 tion of which an area of 960,000 acres would 

 be necessary. Again, he entered into the ques- 

 tion of the productionfof rubber from[an acre, 

 and gave a warning against over-production". 



