and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



487 



what I saw there can only be a very small num- 

 ber of real failures, except something remark- 

 able happens. We can state that we nave, as a 

 result of recent planting activity, a very sub- 

 stantial acreage of sturdy, healthy, living rubber 

 trees. 



What Plantation May Do. 

 Having thus satisfied ourselves that the Eas- 

 tern plantation industry is not a myth let us 

 think what it really represents and compare the 

 potentialities of the new enterprise with the 

 accomplishments of the old. Most people know 

 that the world's output of raw rubber for last 

 year was approximately 67,000 tons and that 

 actual shipments from Para, to Europe and 

 America, for the year 1907-8 were not less than 

 36,470 tons, valued at about £350 per ton or over 

 £12,500,000. 



Now I want you to fix that amount of Brazi- 

 lian rubber — 36,470 tons— in your minds and 

 see how gradually it has been obtained. We 

 have the figures showing what has been exported 

 from Brazil from 1827 to 1907-8. It has taken 

 80 years to raise the Brazilian output from 50 to 

 36,470 tons. In the first thirty years, 1827 to 1857, 

 Brazil raised its i output to 1,800 tons ; the East 

 promises to get near that total this year. But think 

 of the handicap. Brazil started with its dense 

 forests, indigenous trees, over many square miles 

 of territory ;,the East commenced with a couple 

 of thousand seeds secured by Wickham in 

 1876, had to rear them into seed bearers, and 

 to wait for public interest to be aroused in 

 the cultivation. In fact the 1908 exports from 

 the East only represent the Result of Inqui- 

 sitiveness on the part of a few planters who 



Eut Para seeds out because the trees might 

 e useful in later years. The results obtained 

 indicate the potentialities of the thriving, 

 though young, plantations and the future pi - os- 

 pect can no longer be disregarded. 



If there be any who still regard the Eastern 

 plantation industry as something not worthy 

 of their consideration, let them remember 

 that, on very moderate estimates, the trees 

 now planted in a small fraction of the little 

 island of Ceylon should, when mature, an- 

 nually yield more than the average annual 

 output from the whole of Africa. Further 

 more, it can be taken for granted that, ex- 

 cept something unforeseen happens, we shall 

 have annually as much rubber from the East as 

 we have in the past received from Brazil. 



Every Eastern estate represents a centralised 

 mass of trees from which supplies of rubber can 

 be more rapidly and economically drawn than in 

 any other part of the world. Every tree is under 

 the personal supervision of trained European 

 agriculturists and can receive daily attention ; 

 from past experiences one feels justified in an- 

 ticipating success. 



Decline in Inferior Rubbers. 



From these facts it will be clear that the pot- 

 entialities of the Eastern industry alone are such 

 that when the rubber is arriving in fair quantity 

 other rubbers of an inferior kind will feel the 

 pinch. In Ceylon, Malaya, Java, Sumatra, 

 Borneo, and Samoa, Para rubber trees are mainly 



cultivated, though the Dutch and German colo- 

 nies have achieved some success with species 

 of Ficus. 



Para rubber is acknowledged to be superior to 

 most other kinds. We have been assured by 

 some of the most prominent British manufac- 

 turers that, if we can supply them with Para at 

 2/6 per lb. they will use it in preference to 

 most African and inferior American grades. This 

 appears a fitting opportunity to ask continental 

 and American manufacturers at this Exhibition 

 whether they share in that view. If so, you can 

 predict the fate of inferior grades yourselves. 



With such a change— decline in Africans 

 and inc cease in Eastern Para — must come others 

 in the commercial centres now dealing more 

 or less osxolusively in either of these grades. 

 As fars to Great Britain is concerned, London 

 appear East be one of the coming centres for the 

 sale oferpooern Para, when compared with that 

 of Livindical. Our continental friends can, per- 

 haps, in thte to us the changes likely to be in- 

 duced in their respective centres by the same 

 causes. 



Consumption. 



There is on getting away from the fact that 

 the condition ofatfairs must materially change 

 when Eastern Para has caken its proper place. 

 In addithere wilthe decline in inferior grade 

 rubbers there will, in consequence of the more 

 reasonable price for raw rubber, be a stimulus to 

 consumption ; many anticipate that the increase 

 in consumption iwill at the least off-set the in- 

 crease from Mexican plantations. In many parts 

 of the world there are indications of new open- 

 ings for the rubber trade and even though the 

 annual consumptin is at present very consi- 

 derable, further progress in that direction is 

 expected 



Thecondition of Eastern estates, the yielding 

 capacity of the acreages now planted, and the 

 interest in this comparatively new and profitable 

 industry. 



Raw Rubber Prices. 



In this brief sketch of the position of the 

 Eastern plantation industry, I hope, I have 

 brought home one point, viz., that we are on the 

 eve of a great change, not only in planting but 

 also in important commercial centres. The 

 final results will, as in all other commodities, 

 be determined by the values ruling for the 

 raw article. A continuance of 2/6 per lb. ror 

 plantation rubber, will, to a large extent, place 

 the world's power in Eastern plantations, for 

 against that price but little African and 

 American rubber cau be exported under ex- 

 isting circumstances. At that price and with 

 yields only equal to those obtained up-to-date, 

 planters and others engaged in plantations will 

 secure a very handsome profit. Should con- 

 sumption and prices increase beyond what we 

 anticipate, those connected with plantations 

 will be in a still happier position. In the meam- 

 time they can rest assured that there is a 

 healthy demand for raw rubber which is not 

 likely to die away, and that only good manage- 

 ment on the estates and at home is required to 

 bring the enterprise to a successful issue. 



