182 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



The actual experience of tapping 198, 000 trees 

 in Ceylon and the Straits Settlements in 1905 

 gave 240,000 lb. of rubber, and in 1906 the 

 tapping of 10,000 trees in Ceylon of the average 

 age of ten years gave 30,000 lb. Now, in cal- 

 culating the 



PROBABLE VALUE OF GROWING PLANTATIONS 



in Ceylon, we may take a planting distance of 

 20 feet by 15, or 150 trees to the acre, as the 

 most suitable, and if we accept from seven- 

 years-old trees a return equal to one-half of 

 that secured from 10,000 trees of ten years' 

 growth, it will give 275 lb. of rubber to the 

 acre. I have calculated roughly that the cost 

 at which an acre of rubber will stand in seven 

 years, including purchase, clearing, planting, 

 weeding, and interest on outlay, will average 

 about £22. What the price of rubber may be 

 at that date who can Eay ? But, if we take 

 it at 2s 6d per lb., the annual gross return of 

 £34 7s 6d per acre will leave a handsome 

 margin of profit to the investor, 

 i There are at present at least 140,000 acres 

 planted with rubber in Ceylou which, on the 

 estimate that I have adopted, will in six years 

 return annually 14,062 tons, value £3,937,360, 

 which will almost equal the value of tea ex- 

 ported in 1906. 



A STRANGE ROMANCE OF RUBBER. 



At the Port of London. 

 Let us try to trace the history of rubber from 

 its earliest stage until it reaches that focus of 

 commerce and adventure and romance — thePort 

 of London. 



Imagine, then, in the forests of South America, 

 of Madagascar, Mozambique and the Western 

 States of Africa, of Assam, Rangoon, the Straits 

 Settlements, Java— imagine the planting of that 

 seed, the gradual growth of the rubber-giving 

 tree, with its large trifoliate leaves to its height 

 of sixty feet. 



. The moment comes for the rubber to be ex- 

 tracted. After some years' growth a deep hori- 

 zontal cut is made near the base of the tree. 

 From it a vertical incision extends up the 

 trunk and is joined by oblique incisions run- 

 ning into it at intervals. A shallow cap is 

 placed beneath the lowest cut and into it there 

 Hows gradually a milk-like fluid. This is the 

 rubber in its first state. 



The trees are "tapped" in the evening. Tho 

 following morning the juice is collected. Each 

 tree yields about six ounces of juice in the 



course of three days. The milky fluid is con- 

 tained chiefly in the middle layer of the bark 

 in a network of tiny tubes. The precise 

 method of "tapping" varies in different coun- 

 tries and in some cases the rubber is allowed 

 to drip on to large leaves spread upon the 

 ground to receive it. 



This fluid must now be dried. Sometimes 

 the contents of the cups are just poured out on 

 the earth and the sun is allowed to do its work, 

 but in the case of the finer qualities of rubber 

 more care is needed. 



As the rubber dries its colour changes. It 

 becomes black and hard. In that condition it 

 is packed in bales, carried down to the coast 

 and loaded on the tramp steamers ofton in 

 quantities of ten tons in one cargo. Thus it 

 reaches the Port of London. 



The Para rubber, which in quality is the best, 

 co mes ins olid blocks weighing about a hundred 

 weight. This is the kind of rubber used in the 

 manufacture of billiard-table cushions. From- 

 Mozambique the rubber comes in bales like 

 gigantic sausages, from other places in thin 

 sheets — ' biscuits ' the trade calls them. And 

 these ' biscuits ' fetch the best prices, selling at 

 about 4s. the lb. 



rubber from para. 

 Strange, indeed, are the shapes in those rubber 

 cargoes! 'Knuckles,' 'negro-heads,' ' thimb. 

 les,' 'nuts,' 'tongues,'! They are unloaded 

 all of them at the Port, weighed duly in cases, 

 and samples are cut off for tho inspection of deal- 

 ers. The cafes are then stored in the ware- 

 houses to await the auction sales which take 

 place each fortnight in AJincing-lane. 



Thus — for Ave must follow its fortunes to the 

 end— our rubber passes into the hands of the 

 manufacturers and their activity begins. They 

 boil it, they roll it, they grind it to rid the crude 

 substance of impurities, they vulcanise it to 

 render it resilient and to increase its resistance 

 to air and water. And here let us note as one of 

 the most remarkable facts of all modern industry 

 — the increasing importance of rubber in the 

 sphere of daily life. Take the figures : — 



They refer to the imports of rubber into the 

 Port of London : — 



Hundred weights. 

 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 

 25,902 29,833 41,168 48,423 91,254 

 and thc-y represent in value : — 



1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 

 £ £ £ £ £ 



202,217 319,691 467,621 5C5.845 1,011,472 



