276 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



The Future of Rubber. 



The Federated Malay States produced about 

 three-fifths of the tin supply of the world, and 

 in a few years time Malaya should supply a 

 very large proportion of the world's demand 

 for rubber. In 10 years (1919) presuming that 

 '25,000 acres are planted annually during the 

 next live years (a very reasonable estimate, con- 

 sidering that over 40,000 acres were planted 

 during the year in both 1907 and 1908), the rubber 

 trees of the Federated Malay States should 

 yield not less than 50,000 tons of dry rubber, 

 which at 3s. per lb. represents a value of 

 $144,000,000. This amount, should the demand 

 for rubber increase at the rate it has been 

 annually rising for the last nine years, will 

 probably at that time be less than 25 per cent of 

 the world's consumption. It is 70 years since the 

 discovery of vulcanisation by Goodyear made 

 rubber available for economic purposes. It is 

 now a necessary of civilised life, and it is only 

 by means of rubber that we can solve the diffi- 

 cult problems of transport and communication. 

 "Without it electric wire insulation for tele- 

 graphy and lighting, pneumatic and cushion 

 tyres, and the air brakes of railways would all 

 be impracticable ; and in the purposes for 

 which it is used in medicine and surgery it is 

 an absolute essential. The optimistic view that 

 the demand will before long exceed the supply 

 is not more unlikely than the more usual view 

 of the pessimist that the continued planting 

 of rubber will result in a supply larger than 

 the demand and consequently a considerable 

 drop in prices. That the market will be over- 

 stocked with rubber is still a haunting fear of 

 the owner of rubber property, but as each year 

 brings new uses for rubber, and increases the 

 amount used in directions where its value is 

 already known, the possibility of over-production 

 seems less probable. 



Many expert authorities expect the develop- 

 ments in the direction of rubber street-paving, 

 covering for decks of ships, etc., may be looked 

 for in the near future. Some two or three years 

 ago, when I was looking into the question of 

 rubber pavement, I estimated that two-inch- 

 thick rubber of the quality which the London 

 and North-Western Railway had so successfully 

 used in the rubber pavement at the entrance of 

 Euston Station if used for paving the streets of 

 London, which are at present laid with wood or 

 asphalt, would require about 90,000 tons of 

 crude rubber. If the prophecies so frequently 

 made by experts as to the increase in the use of 

 motor cars are fulfilled, we have another large 

 and increasing demand for rubber of good qua- 

 lity, and wherever the future possibilities of ex- 

 pansion in the rubber market is studied it is 

 found to be more than hopeful. The purposes 

 for which rubber can and will be used economi- 

 cally are unlimited, and we may look forward to 

 a coming rubber age on which all the most suit- 

 able rubber planting areas of the world, of which 

 Malaya can claim to be the best, will be re- 

 quired to supply a firm and increasing demand. 

 Malaya possesses the finest climate in the world 

 tor the rapid and healthy growth of Para rub- 

 ber, and, since millions of acres suitable for 

 this cultivation are still available, there ie 



every probability that this country will be in 

 the future one of the largest producers of rub- 

 ber in the world. The fear of over-production 

 is to some extent pardonable on examining the 

 magnitude of the figures relating to rubber 

 planting in Malaya, but a consideration of the 

 possibilities of the world's future requirements 

 takes the student into figures beside which 

 those of Malaya are but small. 



J. B. Carruthers, 



Director of Agriculture and Government Bota- 

 nist, FM.S. — Administration Report. 



PARA RUBBER. 



BRAZIL'S FUTURE AND MALAYA 

 METHODS. 

 An Expert's Views. 

 Mr. D Sandmann, whom wo mentioned in 

 our Saturday's issue as paying a visit to these 

 States, has been kind enough to accord an in- 

 terview to a representative of this paper during 

 his brief stay in Kuala Lumpur. Mr. Sand- 

 mann has been 



DEPUTED BY THE GERMAN COLONIAL OFFICE 



to make a thorough study of tropical pro- 

 ducts ; but, as he pointed out, rubber has 

 come so much to the fore of late that a 

 large part of his time has been employed in 

 investigating it. In this respect he has pre- 

 viously visited Ceylon and Burma, and has also 

 made a somewhat lengthy stay in Brazil, though 

 he has never before been in the F.M.S. Mr. 

 Sandmann says that his work is mainly that 

 connected with the chemical side of the ques- 

 tion. Last year, he went to Brazil to studj 

 the condition of the Para rubber industry along 

 the Amazon and its numerous tributaries. He 

 was the first to approach the matter there 

 from the economic side, though there had 

 been several botanists before him. One ques- 

 tion especially interested him ; namely, whether 

 Para rubber from Brazil could be placed on 

 the market if the price fell to a fairly low 

 figure; and, as the result of his investigations 

 he states that he is convinced that the pro- 

 duction from that country will never be less 

 t;han it is today, for, 



IF THE PRICE DROPS, THE PEOPLE WILL 

 WORK HARDER. 



Now they work about six hours a day for from 

 four to six months in the year, according to 

 length of season of heavy lain ; this lasts six 

 months ; while for the remainder of the year 

 the rainfall is comparatively light. This work 

 is intermittent, as they have many holi- 

 days, and, besides, always rest in the after- 

 noons. An important factor in the matter 

 of production is, of course, the question of 

 communications, and Mr. Sandmann states 

 that these are about to be improved. For in- 

 stance, Brazil is under obligation to Bolivia to 

 build a railway along the route of tho Rio 

 Madeira to the Acre country, which Bolivia 

 handed over to Brazil on condition that the 

 latter carried this enterprise through. This 

 territory is, Mr. Sandmann says, the most iia- 



