27 



Saps and Exudations* 



our correspondent remarks :— " Yet they expect, as you will see, to pay £25 an acre 

 profit "! Nothing like this elegant report is produced by Ceylon Planting Companies, 

 for no extra enticement is needed to draw capital to Ceylon and the East ; and if 

 these expectations come to pass, the assurance for Ceylon is all the greater. 



As regards up-to-date information of Ceylon methods Ave need only 

 refer the reader to the important interview with Mr. Herbert Wright recorded in 

 our columns yesterday ; where the latest details are given of the use of single and— 

 for the first time- of multiple drip tins, economic tapping, and the quality and 

 yield of rubber from high parts of trees. 



Today we publish an interesting article* giving an epitome of rubber cultiva- 

 tion in the Malay Peninsula. The writer takes a very keen interest in everything 

 connected with rubber, and he has a larger interest in the industry than perhaps 

 any individual proprietor in the Malay Peninsula. His remarks are concise and to 

 the point, and will be read with interest by planters. —Ceylon Observer. 



The World's Rubber. 



RUBBER IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. 



Mr. A. O. Devitt, who is known to the majority of rubber planters in Ceylon, 

 through his lengthy visit to the Colony recently, has put in a couple of days here 

 on his return from the Malay Peninsula homeward bound. From what he had 

 heard preyious to his visit Mr. Devitt had expected great things of the F. M. S., 

 and was a little disappointed. Rubber, he says, is grown there to a larger extent 

 than in Ceylon ; that is, you see greater continuous blocks of rubber trees and larger 

 clearings, but Ceylon need not fear competition ; there are certain advantages over 

 there, but these are counter-balanced by certain disadvantages; certainly in the 

 Peninsula things are being done on a large scale. 



Large individual estates are able to turn out big lots of rubber of the same 

 quality and grade and similar in appearance ; whereas, in dealing with Ceylon 

 rubber, to get a large stock together of similar rubber it has to be made up with 

 samples from all over the place. This, of course, is merely a matter for time to 

 make good for Ceylon. 



On the majority of plantations washing machines are employed and crepe 

 rubber turned out. One of the specially interesting observation Mr. Devitt made 

 was # that on so many estates the parings or shavings taken off in tapping are 

 collected and put through the rollers of the washing machine, and that this 

 operation pays for the tapping ! 



" On a great many estates they pay for the entire tapping by putting the 

 parings through the crepe machine rollers," he says. Even on the best tapped trees, 

 Mr. Devitt remarks, some rubber will be found on the shavings, not in the shavings, 

 but sticking to them either as small scrap or drops which have oozed out, after the 

 latex has ceased to run, and all these should be saved, passed through the machine 

 and turned out as crepe. It is quite unnecessary, says Mr. Devitt, when shipping 

 the rubber to mention that it is scrap from shavings : but the crepe should be piled 

 in lots according to colour as pale, dark or darkish, and black crepe. Mr. Devitt 

 highly recommends this method of treating the shavings from the tapping oper- 

 ations to all Ceylon planters as an economic operation. Sheet rubber is, however, 

 still the more attractive form in which to make it. It looks' very strong and well 

 coloured and is very attractive to buyers ; and run through the rollers with water 

 playing on it, as is done on Lowlands and some other estates, the sheet turned out 

 is excellent. 



* See " T.A." this month, page 22. 



