Gums, Resins, 



106 



[August, 1909. 



trees about 5 years old on the Frederick 

 Hoffmann Plantations yielded 3 lbs. of 

 rubber each during the year. 



As a rule trees of 10 years old are said 

 to cease to yield rubber in paying 

 quantities. 



Value op Obara Rubber.— For ordin- 

 ary collected Ceara rubber the present 

 price in Hamburg is from 3s. to 3s. Qd. 

 per lb., but for machine-cleaned rubber a 

 much higher price is obtained. 



Cost of Cultivation.— As in the other 

 cultivations the cost varies according to 

 the nature of the land, rate of wages, &c, 

 but the maximum cost is given as 

 Rs. 85 per acre up to the end of the 

 2nd year. 



At the lowest computation the rubber 

 obtained from the trees at the end of 

 the 2nd year, after paying cost of collec- 

 tion, would more than balance the 

 expenditure on cultivation, and by the 

 3rd or 4th year a profit of from £10 

 to £15 per acre could be reasonably 

 expected. 



Production.— Authorities agree that 

 there is no danger of over-production of 

 rubber lor m<my years to come, as the 

 demand for rubber is continually in- 

 creasing. It is also admitted that the 

 natural sources of supply are being 

 gradually exhausted, and that in the 

 future " Plantation " rubber will be more 

 than ever sought after. 



Oil prom the Seed op the Ceara 

 Rubber Tree. 



In a recent Bulletin of the Imperial 

 Institute mention is made that seeds of 

 Ceara rubber had been examined in the 

 Scientific-Technical Department, and 

 that somewhat similar fixed oil to that 

 yielded by Para rubber seeds was 

 obtained. The oil is described as a 

 greenish-yellow colour with an odour 

 resembling that of olive oil and a some- 

 what harsh and bitter taste. The value 

 of the Ceara oil is not given. 



Labour,— In this matter a serious 

 difficulty presents itself, as the native 

 shows a distinct aversion to take up 

 regular employment, if indeed auy at 

 all, and without a regular supply of 

 labourers rubber cultivation cannot be 

 profitably carried on. For each acre of 

 trees at least five labourers will be 

 needed for collecting the rubber, and it 

 is found more satisfactory to pay by 

 results. 



The India Rubber Journal of April 

 9th, 1906, has the following : — 



" Neglected Ceara." 

 Many Ceylon planters are now wishing 

 they had not been so precipitate in 

 cutting out the trees already planted. 



A year or two ago Mr. J. Cameron, 

 Superintendent, Government Gardens, 

 Bangalore, published an interesting note 

 on the Ceara rubber tree {Manihot 

 glaziovii), and its possible utility in the 

 Mysore State. From the date of its 

 introduction in 1879 the Ceara took 

 kindly to the climate of Mysore, and 

 though Mr. Cameron described it as of 

 all the trees latterly introduced the 

 easiest to cultivate, yet till quite 

 recently it has attracted little or no 

 attention. It was planted extensively 

 by coffee planters sixteen and seventeen 

 years ago, the greatest care being taken 

 to file each seed in order to expedite 

 germination. In the next decade, how- 

 ever, the price of rubber went down and 

 that of coffee went up ; and the Ceara 

 which subsequently reproduced itself in 

 large quantities were voted a trouble- 

 some weed and for the most part up- 

 rooted. Here and there, however, some 

 trees survived this period of unpopa- 

 larity, and when in course of time the old 

 order changed, as it is always doing in 

 tropical agriculture, aud rubber went 

 up, while coffee went down, the now 

 well-grown Ceara trees provide the best 

 opportunity for making expesimeuts. 

 Those carried out at the Lai Bagh at 

 Bangalore were especially instructive, 

 though Mr. Cameron admitted on their 

 conclusion that there was still much to be 

 learned about tapping the tree and pre- 

 paring good marketable rubber. But he 

 made what is rightly styled the remark- 

 able discovery that a single Ceara rubber 

 tree would yield 7 lbs. of rubber 

 during the year without being in the 

 slightest exhausted. The produce of 

 Mr. Cameron's trees was valued by 

 London brokers at 3s. per lb. As he 

 remarked at the time, to hear that a 

 Ceara rubber tree was worth a guinea a 

 year was certainly most encouraging, 

 and he concluded that "if the average 

 result in working a large plantation 

 amounted to half or even a quarter 

 of that amount, it will still be a 

 good industry. Ceara rubber is grown 

 successfully in Ceylon at elevations of 

 2,300 and 2,700 feet." 



GUTTA-PERCHA PLANTING 

 IN JAVA. 



(From the India Rubber World, Vol. 

 XXXIX., No. 6, March, 1909.) 

 The importance to the world of com- 

 merce, of the work that is being done in 

 Java in cultivating gutta-percha can 

 hardly be over-estimated. Indeed, until 

 the writer personally met Dr. W. R. 

 Tromp de Haas, the superintendent of 

 the Government gutta plantations in 



