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[Dei-. 190«. 



GUMS, RESBNS, SAPS AND EXUDATIONS. 



Rubber Cultivation and the Future Production, 



By Herbert Wright. 

 A Lecture delivered at the Ceylon Rubber Exhibition, Peradeniya, September 17th, 1906. 



Discussion on the Necessity of Manuring : Brazilian versus Eastern 



Methods op Preparation. 

 This lecture was largely attended and produced an animated discussion on a 

 variety of important topics. H. E. the Governor presided, and among those present 

 were :— Mr. and Mrs. R. Morison, Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Ryan, Colonel Byrde, 

 Messrs. Alex. Rettie, G. P. Gaddum, C. O. Macadam, A J. Dawson, E. Hamilton, 

 C. A. Somerville. C. W. H. Duckworth, M. L, Davidson, J. B. Carruthers, E. G. 

 Windle, 0. K. Smithett, C. Devitfc, Dr. A. Lehmann, Messrs. W. H. Biddulph, Kelway 

 Bamber, R. Anderson, Ivor Etherington, D. S. Cameron, J. Cameron, R. I. Mackenzie 

 Seymour S. Jeffery, R. S. Beling, H. P. Macmillan, G. A. Krumbiegel, R. T. Tipping, 

 C. J. Bayley, Lieut.-Colonel. J. A. Willie, Messrs. E. Blyth, James Morris, Geo. H. 

 Hughes, A. M. Carmichael, C. W. de Hoedt, F. W. de Hoedt, R. H. Perera, G. S. 

 Brown, A. H. Lucas, E. S. Campbell and many others. 



THE LECTURE. 



The almost impossible task of giving a comprehensive lecture under a time- 

 limit of twenty minutes, on the subject of the cultivation of rubber trees, has fallen 

 to my lot, and we cannot do better than briefly survey, in a very general manner, 

 the chief features of the rubber industry as presented to us to-day. It is a wide 

 subject, and consideration of the hundreds of samples of rubber prepared on 

 these and adjacent shores, or of the implements and machinery used in collecting 

 and coagulating latex, and curing rubber, and many other matters must be held 

 over for other occasions. 



selection of rubber trees for cultivation. 



The first point we have to consider is that of the selection of rubber trees 

 for cultivation. We are often told that the present boom in rubber in Ceylon, 

 Federated Malay States, the Straits, Java, Borneo and India, &c, is only a forecast 

 of disaster, and that we are engaging ourselves in a cultivation which, though 

 lucrative enough while maximum market values obtain, will prove unremunerative 

 when large acreages come into bearing, when substitutes and synthetic rubber 

 gain a better footing, and when diseases begin to spread. We are reminded, often 

 by very earnest men, that our cultivated rubber trees are not indigenous in the 

 East, and we have been assured that sooner or later the histories of coffee and 

 cinchona will therefore be repeated ; these assertions, if correct, should be received 

 with more serious consideration than at present. In the first case, however, I desire 

 to point out that we are preparing to combat diseases when they arise, and after 

 thirty years' experience, on somewhat small plantations in Ceylon and the F.M.S., 

 no difficulties have been observed except those which can be overcome. The plea 

 that we cannot succeed with our rubber trees because they are not indigenous is 

 not well-founded. We cultivate cacao as successfully in Ceylon as others do in 

 Central and South America or the West Indies, where it is said to be indigenous, 

 our tea compares favourably with that in Indian and other districts where it 

 occurs wild, and our oil cultivations will stand a comparative investigation. The 

 greater number of the past and present planting industries of Ceylon are the 

 outcome of the cultivation of species which do not occur here in the wild state ; the 



