and Magazine of the Ceylon Ayricullural Society. 



387 



[Is our esteemed correspondent " W.D.G." also 

 among those who yearn after the flesh pots of 

 Egypt as represented by immature rubber and 

 early dividends ? It would appear so from 

 the tenour of this letter. We cannot for a 

 moment accept either of the assertions he makes. 

 We certainly do not think that Mr Herbert 

 Wright's ideas are "getting rather out of date/' 

 Who, may we ask, has offered us any more 

 advanced ideas to supersede those of the 

 enterprising ex-Controller of the Experiment 

 Station or added materially to our stock of 

 knowledge on the genus Hevea Brasiliensis 

 since Mr Wright "published his magnum 

 opus? In what respect, will " W. D. G." tell 

 us, have his ideas become obsolete ? As to 

 the statement made to our correspondent by 

 the Chairman of the Lanadron Rubber Estates 

 Co., we cannot accept it against the almost 

 unanimous opinion of all who have any claim to 

 be regarded as rubber experts. It may be true 

 that " The quality of the rubber is not affected 

 by age of the tree that yields the latex " — when 

 the trees compared are all over, say, ten years of 

 age. This is no new discovery. It was men- 

 tioned in the Lectures at the London Kubber 

 Exhibition, and Mr John Parkin, m. a., declared 

 " Personally I should be rather surprised to 

 find any marked difference in the quality of 

 tlie rubber drawn from ten year old trees as 

 compared with that from 20 year old trees, all 

 other conditions being equal." Does the 

 Lanadron Chairman or "W.D.G.", however, 

 seriously ask us to believe that rubber from a 

 three-year-old tree is equal in quality to rubber 

 from a 20-year old one ? The suggestion is 

 absurd and opposed by all authoritative opinion. 

 Mr C K Smithett pointed out at the first 

 rubber exhibition in Ceylon that the best plan- 

 tation rubber — with greatest tensile strength — 

 was obtained from the oldest trees. By way of 

 warning he observed "Bad reputations are dif- 

 ficult to be got rid of ; so do not let your rubber 

 acquire a reputation of being weaker than fine, 

 hard cure Para." In the f908 Rubber Exhibi- 

 tion in London Mr Philip Schidrowitz in the 

 course of his paper " the Relation of the Manu- 

 facturer to the Consumer" declared: "Although 

 the advantages of plantation are both numerous 

 and important, there is no use blinking the fact 

 that much of the plantation rubber now being 

 produced is in one respect decidedly inferior 

 to the high class wild product, namely in 

 regard to ' nerve ' or strength or resiliency." 

 And he added subsequently : " There is one 

 point on which every manufacturer with whom 

 I have discussed this question (at the Rub- 

 ber Exhibition and elsewhere) is agreed, 

 and that is that the plantation product 

 varies very widely in regard to strength." On 

 the same occasion Mr John Parkin, m.a. stated: 

 " Though plantation rubber has frequently, 

 obtained a higher price per lb. than the best 

 Para, yet I believe it to be a fact that the lat- 

 ter, if as pure and free from moisture, would 

 command a better figure in the market, as it 

 possesses tougher qualities. Fine Para, then, 

 has somewhat superior properties to the first 

 grade plantation rubber hitherto supplied." 

 Our position, therefore, is this : authorities 

 agree that the one point in which our rubber it) 



inferior to the wild product is in nerve and 

 strength. We have been told so all along and 

 the defect has been attributed to our trees 

 being so young. If we are to successfully com- 

 pete with our ''wild" competitor in comman- 

 ding the attention of the manufacturer we must 

 do our best to overcome the reproach of weak- 

 ness in our product. The new system of tapping- 

 does not help us to do this. On the contrary, it 

 accentuates the defect and is bound to make it 

 more prominent than ever it was to manu- 

 facturers. Plantation rubber is still more or 

 less in the experimental stage as far as the 

 manufacturers are concerned ; if it is tried and 

 found wanting now, there may be difficulty in 

 finding a market for tho product when the 

 plantation industry approaches more closely its 

 maximum output. In the above remarks we are 

 thinking of the industry as a whole ; and are 

 quite well aware that there are not a few estates 

 in Ceylon which produce rubber from well 

 matured trees quite equal to the best wild rub- 

 ber in strength and vastly superior to it in 

 purity. — A. M. & J. F.] 



II. 



Kelani Valley, March 20th. 



Sir,— I am glad to see you giving a word of 

 warning as to the quality of rubber which will 

 be harvested if early tapping of rubber trees 

 becomes general all over the Island— for it is a 

 fact which every practical rubber planter knows 

 that rubber harvested from trees under .6 years 

 old no matter what their girth, is less resilient 

 and is full of resin. 



This fact— though it must be known theore- 

 tieally by the TJpcountry rubber Visiting Agents 

 and Directors of Lowcountry concerns (for I 

 presume they read up authorities on the pro- 

 duct which they report on or speak about, 

 though they have no practical hnowiedge of it) 

 — is severely let alone and never whispered 

 about, like Coast advances and other awkward 

 planting subjects — which would interfere with 

 share rises and dividends ; and so orders are 

 given to the wretched Superintendent to tap, 

 tap everything you can, and stop talking about 

 quality and prices which are in the lap of the 

 Gods and in the ignorance of so called rubber 

 experts at Home and in Colombo. 



Be the new tapping system which you hint at 

 and evidently know, though you rightly say it 

 would not be fair to the Inventor to mention, — 

 Is it a fact that increased returns per acre per 

 annum will be obtained ? I doubt it, but am un- 

 able to give my arguments against such a result, 

 for the same reason as yourself ; I will simply 

 state what every practical Planter knows, that 

 an increased yield for a time can be got from 

 any of the old systems. 



The new system is undoubtedly cheaper and 

 a great saving of labour and that alone is worth 

 paying for to learn ; but there I think its 

 advantages end, and it is sickening to read day 

 after day of one Director after another getting 

 up at meetings and talking of doubling and 

 trebling the crop for the current year by tho new 

 system, a .system which has not yet been tried 

 a year. 



