and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



37? 



quotations for the sh ires. In some cases the dec- 

 line has beenasmuchas 30 to 50 percent, as com- 

 pared with those current in the middle of Oct. 

 last. Moreover, it has to be borne in mind that 

 the market is largely nominal in character, con- 

 siderable difficulty being encountered when an 

 endeavour is made to realise even moderate 

 amounts of shares. 



At the present moment the Antwerp rubber 

 trade is suffering from a severe crisis. Accord- 

 ing to Brussels journals, extensive sales of 

 rubber were recently made by the Congo 

 Administration at 4 francs per kilo., in com- 

 parison with 12 francs in 1906, and the market 

 is being congested in consequence of the 

 immense quantities brought by every incoming 

 boat. This, however, is no exceptional 

 experience. So far as this country is con- 

 cerned, stocks have been steadily accumu- 

 lating since 1905. At the close of that year 

 they amounted to 1,562 tons, and at the close 

 of 1907 to 3,268 tons. Apart altogether from 

 Para rubber, there are, it is estimated, over 

 10,000 tons of " mediums " in stock throughout 

 the world, and the tendency is for the process 

 of accumulation to go on. In 1907 the output 

 of Ceylon increased by forty-four per cent, and 

 that of Malaysia one hundred and twenty-two 

 per cent,, as compared with the previous year. 

 Twelve months ago there were abov6 223,000 

 acres planted with rubber trees in those two 

 quarters, Borneo and the Dutch East Indies, 

 and today there are 331,000^,cres. The world's 

 production of rubber last year is estimated at 

 from sixty-nine to over^seventy thousand tons 

 in comparison with sixty-five thousand tons in 

 1906, and the consumption at about sixty-six 

 thousand tons, or practically the same as in the 

 previous year. There is a marked discrepancy 

 between some of the estimatos on this subject 

 and the statistics relating to the stocks in the 

 two periods ; but ignoring variations in the 

 calculations there is no difference of opinion on 

 the broad fact that while consumption is sta- 

 tionary or retrograding the output is advancing 

 by leaps and bounds. Taking the case of Ceylon 

 alone, a hundred and fifty thousand acres were 

 planted last year, of which two thousand five hun- 

 dred acres only were bearing, and it is estimated 

 that in the course of the next six years the 

 acreage will expand at the rate of five thousand 

 acres per annum ; the number of bearing acres 

 at the average rate of twenty thousand per 

 annum, and the exports of rubber at the aver- 

 age rate of over one thousand tons per annum. 

 Much the same estimates as the probable out- 



put in the course of the next few years are 

 made in regard to other parts of the world. 

 Now ground is always being broken. This is 

 natural enough as long as capital finds remu- 

 nerative employment in the industry, as it is 

 still doing except, of course, in the case of joint 

 stock concerns which are unconscionably over- 

 capitalised, as were most of those which were 

 floated during the boom of 1905. It may 

 be pointed out that the recent depression in 

 the rubber share market has been due, in part 

 at least, to rumours that a process has been 

 discovered for the manufacture of' synthetical 

 rubber. Without attaching too much import- 

 ance to this consideration, the likelihood of such 

 a discovery being made or of some good com- 

 mercial substitute being found which will 

 answer many of the purposes now fulfilled by 

 natural rubber alone cannot altogether be over- 

 looked. The chief point of practical impor- 

 tance is, however, that accompanying a station- 

 nary or waning consumption caused by an 

 all-round restriction of industry, there is an 

 ever-increasing production both of the cultivated 

 and wild product. — Scotsman, Feb. 24. 



A Letter from Mr. Thomas North Christie. 



February 24, 1908. 



Sir, — Your timely article on the present posi- 

 tion of the rubber producing industry may 

 convey one false impression, viz., that the over- 

 stocked market is due to the large plantings in 

 Ceylon and Malaya. That is not so, for their 

 total output for 1907 does not equal 1^ per cent, 

 of the world's production, and for a good many 

 years, although the quantity will go up, as you 

 say, by leaps and bounds, tho proportion to the 

 world's total will be small. 



The high prices which have ruled for the past 

 three or four years have caused the rubber 

 gatherers of the Amazon and Congo valleys to 

 exploit distant sources of supply, which were 

 unprofitable at previous prices, and will again 

 have become so at today's prices. The position 

 of affairs in America has probably had nearly as 

 much to do with the fall in price as over-pro- 

 duction has. — I am, &c. 



Thos. North Christie. 

 — The Scotsman, Feb. 25. 



COTTON-GROWING INDUSTRY 

 FOR CEYLON. 



It is very encouraging to find that hard-headed 

 men of business, who have looked into the ques- 

 tion, consider there is a go od prospect of Ceylon 

 developing in the near future a very considerable 



