and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



399 



RUBBER CULTIVATION IN 

 MALABAR. 



We have just received a copy of a very inter- 

 esting report on the rubber trees to bo found 

 growing at Nilambur and Calicut, in South 

 Malabar, which was written by Mr 11 L Proud- 

 lock when he was Curator of the Government 

 Botanic Gardens and Parks on the Nilgiris, and 

 printed last year. It doscribes the investiga- 

 tions in connection with rubber trees in Malabar 

 carried out by Mr Proudlock in January, 1903. 

 When it was written is not stated, but it has 

 evidently been in existence some years as it is 

 referred to in Mr Proudlock's Annual Report for 

 1906-07 ; it was printed lit the Government Press 

 in 1908, and it has only just been issued to the 

 public. It comprises the only real effort on 

 the part of the Government to collect into one 

 volume information regarding the lubber trees 

 introduced at various times into Southern India 

 from foreign countries during the last 30 years. 



It seems certain from the documentary evi- 

 dence now available that the idea of introducing 

 American rubber trees into India originated 

 with Sir Clements Markham, for in a book en- 

 titled " Peruvian Bark," which he published in 

 1880, he wrote : — 



" In 1870 I came to the conclusion that it was necessary 

 to do for the India rubber or caoutchouc-yielding trees what 

 had already been done with such happy results for cin- 

 chona trees." 



Mr Proudlock briefly describes the introduc- 

 tion of Para rubber (Hevea Brasiliensis) into 

 India, Ceylon and Burma through the agency of 

 the Royal Botanic Gardeus, Kew, which inter- 

 esting story has already been told in our columns. 

 It is not necessary here, therefore, to do more 

 than state that of the Malabar trees on which 

 Mr Proudlock specially reported 28 were re- 

 ceived from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Pera- 

 deniya, and planted out at Nilambur in Juno, 

 1879, and three more were received from Mr T 

 J Ferguson, of Calicut and planted out there in 

 1886. Further experiments were conducted with 

 Para, Ceara, and Castilloa rubber trees at 

 Plantation House, Calicut, and at Punur by 

 Mr T J Ferguson on behalf of the Govern- 

 ment, through whose agency he was sup- 

 plied with seeds and plants of these s-pecies 

 from April, 1883, to September, 1885. The 

 trees at Nilambur were left to the tender 

 mercies of the Forest Department officials, under 

 whose charge they made excellent growth for 

 the first few years. Then arose, apparently, a 

 generation which knew not the possibilities of 

 rubber trees, which were allowed to be over- 

 shadowed by teak, mahogany and other trees 

 dearer by far to the heart of the Forest official. 

 Mr. Proudlock quotes the views expressed by 

 two of these officials which demonstrate the 

 great mistake made by the Government in trust- 

 ing important experiments of this nature to 

 gentlemen who took no particular interest in 

 them. One of these, Mr. P M Lushington, in his 

 report dated the 2nd March, 1895, describes the 



TAPPING OPERATIONS CONDUCTED IN 1886-87 

 AND AGAIN IN 1895, 



as a result of which 100 trees yielded 10 lb. of 

 rubber ; and as this was not worth much more 

 than a similar number of rupees, he said that the 

 experiment must be considered to have failed 



from a financial point of view. In any case, ho 

 added, these trees were much out of place in a 

 teak plantation, and a proposition had been 

 made to cut them.out and plant the area with 

 teak. Fortunately, this was not done though 

 most of the rubber trees, introduced by the Gov- 

 ernment at great cost 16 years before, were 

 gradually allowed to succumb. The experimental 

 cultivation of rubber plants through private 

 agency had been ordered to be discontinued ten 

 years before, and the adverse opinions referred 

 to obtained such wide publicity, that up to 

 within tho last few years the majority of the 

 planters of this Presidency were deterred from 

 taking up what, Mr Proudlock says, "is now 

 proved beyond all doubt to be a highly remu- 

 nerative cultivation." 



As a result of his tours in 1903 and subse- 

 quently, Mr Proudlock obtained a very favou- 

 rable impression of the exceeding suitability of 

 tho belt of coastal country which lies between 

 the sea and the foot of the Western Ghauts, 

 both as regards climate and soil, for rubber-cul- 

 tivation on an extensive scale. This conclusion, 

 it mu^t be borne in mind, was arrived at during 

 the first few years experiments that were car- 

 ried out with these trees, both by Government 

 officials and private persons qualified to form an 

 opinion on the subject ; and that it is widely 

 held today is evident from the thousands of 

 acre3 that are being cultivated with rubber 

 today wherever land can be obtained from the 

 Malabar to Southern Travancore. Mr Proudlock 

 also found the trees he tapped to yield latex 

 freely and of excellent quality. He obtained 



1 LB. 5 OZS. FROM ONE PARA TREE AT NILAMBUR 

 IN JANUARY, 1903, 



and nothing, he says, could be more satisfactory 

 than the yield from this particular tree, which 

 completely disproves the repeated inferences 

 contained in the Forest Department Reports 

 that the trees at Nilambur would not yield 

 sufficient rubber to pay. As a matter of fact, 

 had these trees yielded poorly, it would not have 

 been surprising, for, owing to having been 

 allowed to grow under too much shade, and too 

 close together, they were "rather spindly and 

 had poor crowns." Besides, as Mr Proudlock 

 explains, proper methods of tapping were not 

 employed, as they were neither known nor 

 understood at that time ; nor was the tapping- 

 carried out regularly in a systematic manner by 

 a trained staff under proper supervision, as it 

 must be if rubber cultivation is to be made 

 to pay. 



We may confidently affirm with Mr Proudlock 

 that no further arguments appear to be neces- 

 sary to prove that the mature Para trees at 

 Nilambur are capable of yielding rubber quite 

 as good, both in quantity and in quality, as 

 trees of the same species will yield in any part 

 of the Eastern Hemisphere; and that tho 

 Nilambur country, as shown in the photographs, 

 a number of which are published with the Re- 

 port, contains some of the finest sites in Southern 

 India for rubber cultivation, especially for 

 Para rubber. The failure of the various Forest 

 officials concerned to gauge the true value of 

 the latter must be excused on the score that the 



