loo 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



GERMANY AND PLANTATION 

 RUBBER CULTIVATION. 



DEEPENING INTEREST. 



We announced in our December issue that 

 Herr Adolph Prinzhorn, Director of the great 

 Continental Caoutchouc Works at Hanover, 

 would be returning to Ceylon before long 

 after touring India and the Rubber districts 

 Farther East, and would make known for the 

 benefit of Ceylon planters certain improve- 

 ments to be aimed at and — we presume— 

 capable of attainment, in the preparation of 

 their raw rubber here. This itself is an addi- 

 tional sign of the interest in plantation rubber 

 coming to be shown on the Continent at the 

 present stage of the industry — an even more 

 emphatic proof being the very fact that so 

 "big'' a rubber manufacturer as Herr Prinz- 

 horn should think it worth while to take the 

 present trip. His tour is, curiously enough, 

 co-temporaneous with those of Mr. Arthur S. 

 Morrison, Director of the Leyiand and Bir- 

 mingham Rubber Co., and of Mr. Pattrick Millan 

 Matthew, Chairman and Managing Director of 

 the Victoria Rubber Co., Ltd., Leith, N. B., 

 who was in Colombo some days ago homeward- 

 bound from the Malay States and transhipped 

 (Of the movements of the former we have not yet 

 heard.) Though wedid not personally meet him, 

 hear that while in Colombo, Mr. Matthew— 

 who had seen some fine rubber in Malaya, 

 including one 15-year-old tree which had given 

 50 lb. dry rubber in one year — gave it as his 

 opinion that the ultimate killing out of the 

 wild rubber industry by the " plantation " 

 was regarded by him as a certainty; 

 and that it was only a question of time 

 himself thinking it would probably not be 

 consummated for another twenty-five years. 

 No wonder, therefore, that Continental as well 

 as British users of rubber on a large scale are 

 coming out to make certain for themselves 

 the extent (in acreage) and resources (in capa- 

 city for big yields) of plantation rubber in the 

 East. Mr Matthew, we hear, has interests in 

 plantations in Johore and has recently made 

 a tour of estates in Malay Peninsula. He 

 is very satisfied in every way with the prospects 

 of the plantation industry and says that the 

 rubber can be used for any purposes, and in 

 some trials made for the sake of comparison the 

 plantation product gave better results than the 

 Brazil rubber. From plantation rubber he has 

 turned out splendid " thread rubber,' 1 which is 

 a very high test. As regards the age of the 

 trees, and its influence on the quality of the 

 rubber, he is of opinion, from his experience, 

 that after, say, eight years, the rubber is of full 

 strength, and there is little difference between 

 the rubbers of trees S, 12 and 15 years of age. 

 Mr Matthew is also of opinion that all rubber 

 should bo shipped in the form of crepe, 

 and does not favour biscuit, sheet, etc. He 

 also advises — and is, we hear, very parti- 

 cular upon this— that every estate should 

 mark its rubber with its stamp. This can 

 easily be done by the creping machine. The 

 reason is that there are in England certain small 

 firms who are offering to manufacturers and 

 others lots of " plantation ciepe rubber,'' very 



little of which has ever come from any planta- 

 tion. A small percentage of it is plantation 

 rubber, and this is blended and mixed with 

 African and other low grade rubbers, washed 

 and creped, and then offered as the genuine 

 article from the East, at a handsome profit to 

 the blenders. Mr. Mathew's firm has had re- 

 peated offerings of this sort, and he thinks it 

 would be of great service to the plantation in 

 dustry if all rubber were marked with the estate 

 mark. We commend this suggestion to all 

 planters. And in this connection it is not gener- 

 ally known how much local growers owe it to Mr 

 Walther Freudenberg of Bremen that so much 

 interest has come to be taken in the British 

 cultivated product. For some considerable 

 time now Mr. Freudenberg has been drawing 

 the attention of manufacturers in the Father- 

 land to the increasing acreage being put under 

 rubber everywhere in the East, and to the 

 consequent certainty of increasing supplies in 

 the future even if the use of plantation rubber 

 were to be for the most part experimental just 

 at present. He has, too, followed the esti- 

 mates of acreage cultivated very closely, in- 

 cluding that in our 1908-9 Directory ; and am- 

 endations obtainable from time to time are 

 promptly communicated to the authorities in 

 Germany. In our statement what was estimated 

 for India and Burma was put roughly at 28,000 

 acres. This will have to be appreciably in- 

 creased when the estimate is made up afresh 

 next year; for Messrs. Freudenberg & Co. lately 

 received the following carefully detailed esti- 

 mate of South Indian Rubber Estate acreages, 

 compiled by a leading firm in Cochin, and of 

 which, at our request, Mr. H. Woltersdorff, 

 Manager of Messrs. Freudenberg & Co.'s Ex- 

 port Department, has courteously afforded a 

 copy. It is of special interest, aud — if planters 

 will assist us to the full extent required — we 

 will endeavour to produce a similar table for 

 the (?) 150,000 acres in this colony in due 

 course. We reproduce it in full:— 



South Indian Rubber Estates. 



Acreages ami Ages. 

 District. Six Five Four Three Two One 



years years, years, years, years, year. 



& over. 



Mundaykayani . . . . 220 752 2,280 2,482 



Peermaad ]| 199 262 



North Travancote . . 230 200 78 436 424 



Cochin .. .. .. 47 968 733 



South Travancore .. 12 245 1,070 1,573 1,181 



Total 



1§ 242 671 



1,953 5,456 5,08! 



District. 



1908. 



Plant- Total Tea Re- 

 ing. under with serve. 

 Rubber. Rubber. 



Total. 



Mundaykayam 

 Peermaad 

 North Travancore 

 Cochin 



South Travancore 



1,894 7,634 

 462J 



1,181 2,549 

 200 1,948 

 694 4,781 



4,569 



1,805 

 200 



1,603 7,304 



12,203 

 462£ 

 4,354 

 2,148 



13,688 



Total 



3,969 17,374§ 



1,603 13,878 



32,855i 



Malabar 2,000 acres 

 none in bearing. 



between 5 esta 



tes, all Para Rubber, 



Mr. Woltersdorff at the same time sends us 

 what is of decided interest, too, — the exports of 

 rubber from Burma, as follows : — 



1904 5. 1905 6. 1906-7. 1907-8. 



127,792 1b. 174,608 1b. 173,712 1b. 132,384 1b. 



