182 



The Supplement to he Tropical Agriculturist 



RUBBER CULTIVATION IN BURMA. 



(To the Editor, " Rangoon Gazette.") 

 Sir, — With reference to your article in Satur- 

 day's paper of July 30th entitled ' Rubber in 

 Burma," I would draw your attention as well as 

 those who are interested in rubber cultivation 

 in Burma to the following remarks : A number 

 of companies placed before the investing public 

 in Burma do not tend to gain the confidence of 

 the investing public in the cultivation of rubber 

 in Burma, which is much to be regretted. 



The numerous applications lately made to 

 Government for land in Burma for the culti- 

 vation of rubber, which in many cases have been 

 made with the object of promoting companies 

 and making money quickly, has led the Govern- 

 ment to put forward a new rule and taxation on 

 land suitable for rubber cultivation, viz. R25 

 per acre. This certainly has had the desired 

 effect of weeding out those who are in earnest 

 from those who merely apply to Government for 

 land for the sole purpose of company promo- 

 tion, because since those who had applied for 

 land from Government having been informed 

 of the Government's intention, those not 

 in earnest have withdrawn their appli- 

 cationp. This move on Government's part has 

 naturally called forth criticism from all those 

 who are in earnest and through the Rangoon 

 Chamber of Commerce a strong protest has been 

 put forward to the Local Government. 



Commenting on the action of Government, it 

 is, to say the least, premature, and likely to 

 drive away (as well as those who are not in ear- 

 nest) capital from the country to other countries 

 where land can be obtained at much more rea- 

 sonable rates. Now take, for instance, the reve- 

 nues and other advantages the Government and 

 the country would gain from, say, a company 

 with, say, 5,000 acres of rubber land. In revenue 

 the Government obtains in the first place Survey 

 fees at 12 annas per acre, which amounts to 

 R3.750, and after 12 years exemption, as per the 

 old and original order of land grants, say R3 per 

 acre if within township area, which means a 

 yearly revenue of R15,000, as well as having the 

 country populated with a race of cultivators who 

 are willing to develop the vast acres now un- 

 developed, from which Government receive no 

 revenue. 



THE PROPOSED NEW TERMS UPON WHICH THE 

 GOVERNMENT ARE PREPARED TO GRANT LAND 



for the cultivation of rubber are certainly very 

 hard and arbitrary, inasmuch as the period of 

 exemption is now only eight years and in the 

 ninth and tenth year the rent is to be R12"8 per 

 acre, and in the eleventh and twelfth year R18*12 

 per acre, and for future R25 per acre. This would 

 mean a yearly revenue of R125,000 from a 5,000 

 acre rubber plantation which in the thirteenth 

 year would earn a profit of say R9,37,500, taking 

 100 trees per acre yielding 400z. per tree, 125,000 

 lb. of rubber at, say, Rl per lb. profit £62,500, or 

 R937.500, out of which the Government would 

 receive in rent Rl,25,000 or 13 per cent of the 

 earnings of the company. This will certainly 

 not tend to attract capital for the cultivation of 

 rubber in } Burma. 



Under fair and considerate terms being 

 granted by Government to capital invested for 

 the exploitation of rubber cultivation in Burma 

 will undoubtedly prove beneficial to all con- 

 cerned, and to help to develope vast tracts of 

 land at present undeveloped from which Gov- 

 ernment are drawing little or no revenue, which 

 thrown open to the rubber planter will not only 

 become revenue yielding, but will also populate 

 the country with the right class of cultivators 

 and at the same time help India as an outlet for 

 her teeming millions. — 1 am, etc., 



ONE INTERESTED IN RUBBER 

 CULTIVATION. 

 — Rangoon Gazette, Aug. 8. 



RUBBER AC, I N N1LG IRI GARDENS. 



In forwarding to Government the Annual 

 Administration Report of the Government Bo- 

 tanic Gardens and Parks on the Nilgiris for 1909- 

 10, the Collector, Mr W Francis, points out 

 that the public gardens and open spaces both in 

 Ootacamund and Coonoor have been much im- 

 proved in the past year by Mr F H Butcher, the 

 Acting Curator. Rubber planters will be inte- 

 rested to hear that there is a Para or Heva bra- 

 siliensis tree growing in the Burliar Gardens 81 

 feet high and 6 feet in girth ; 4 feet from the 

 ground ; a Castilloa elastica tree 60 feet high 

 and 5 feet 7 inches in girth ; a Ceara rubber tree 

 46J feet high and 3 feet 6| inches in girth, and a 

 Lagos silk rubber tree Funtumia ajricana 46 feet 

 in height and 1 feet 11 inches girth — all mea- 

 sured also at 4 feet above the ground. In the 

 Benhope Garden some plants of Funtumia elastica 

 flowered and produced a few seeds, and in both 

 the Burliar and Kullar Gardens the mature 

 Para trees were regularly tapped and yielded on 

 the average 2 lb per tree of rubber of excellent 

 quality. The method used was the full spiral 

 one, the trees being tapped one morning and 

 pricked the next. This method, says the Cur- 

 ator, takes about six months to complete the 

 tapping of a tree, after which time the tree 

 is ready to be tapped again. The tapping of 

 Para rubber, however, is nowadays pretty well 

 understood and Mr Butcher's experiments in 

 this direction would have been more valuable if 

 they had been continued among the other rubber- 

 yielding species growing in the Gardens under his 

 control. Beside the fine rubbertrees mentioned, 

 the Burliar Gardens can boast of a Durian tree 42 

 ft. high, a camphor Cinnamomum enmphora 41 ft. 

 7 in. and a mahogany Swietcnia mahagoni 64ft. 9 in. 



A good jat of loose-jacket orange has begun to 

 bear fruit at Kullar, and the Burliar magosteen 

 trees yielded an unusually large crop last year 

 of fruits of excellent quality but small in com- 

 parison with those grown in Ceylon and Burma. 

 It is to be regretted that that delicious fruit, 

 the cherimoyer, will not thrive at so high an 

 elevation as Coonoor and that the largest fruit 

 obtained from Mr Proudlock's improved Cape 

 gooseberry plants in the year under review 

 weighed only 165 grains, as compared with the 

 preceding year's record fruit which weighed 289J 

 grains, but it is satisfactory to hear that violet 

 plants, which in recent years have been nearly 

 wiped out on the Nilgiris owing to a destruc- 

 tive disease, are thriving once more in the 

 Government House Gardens.— M, Mail, July 26. 



