Dec. 1000.] 



449 



Saps and Exudations. 



It should be remembered that the 230,000 acres planted or alienated in the East 

 in 1900 will not really be giving any rubber much before 1912, and that in that 

 interval prices may vary considerably, more systematic methods will probably be 

 adopted in the collection of wild rubber, new areas exploited, and many extensions 

 and improvements made in all parts of the tropics. 



If the increase in consumption is much more rapid, and substitutes are 

 used in proportions similar to those of to-day, then the prospect for the cultivation 

 in the tropics is probably considerably brighter. 



The whole subject is very complicated, and I would earnestly ask this 

 audience, in view of the rapid extension of rubber cultivation in many parts of 

 the world, to seriously consider a few of the figures presented to-day. 



These figures are given only to attract attention to this part of the subject, 

 and I hope others will compile their own series and see what conclusion can be 

 arrived at. 



CAST AWAY GLOOM. 



But this is neither the day nor the place for considering the gloomy side, 

 and I gladly leave it to you to reflect on the operations necessary to keep diseases 

 in check, to supply the labour of the future for tapping your recently planted trees, 

 and to consider how high prices, substitutes and artificial rubber are going to 

 affect your otherwise pleasant prospects. The rubber trees, which have been 

 selected for cultivation, easily yield a satisfactory quantity of latex, and I 

 imagine— though I may be quite wrong— that your earliest difficulty will probably 

 be that of procuring the labour necessary to take full advantage of even the quarter 

 million acres, already alienated for, or in, rubber. If it be necessary in order to 

 fully utilise the Para trees, to tap each tree every alternate day, you can imagine 

 the labour force required to work each 500 acre block, possessing, say, 100,000 

 trees. Even allow that a cooly may properly tap 50 trees per day, and dispose of 

 his produce at the store, you can easily see the demand which will be made on our 

 labour. It may, in the near future, be only possible to tap sections of large estates 

 during alternate years : this would be a great pity and mean so much waste 

 of money. 



THE DISCUSSION. 



THE NECESSITY FOR MANURING. 



Mr. Bamber :— Your Excellency and gentlemen, Mr. Wright has referred to 

 the exhaustion of the soils by the growth of Para rubber, and I should like to 

 point out that the actual rubber takes practically nothing out of the soil ; but 

 at the same time the growth of so many trees largely planted among tea is rapidly 

 exhausting the surface soil of available matter. We are able to replace it very 

 largely by ordinary manurial methods, but at the same time we have not been 

 able to replace that organic matter which is essential for preserving the necessary 

 moisture for an easy flow of latex. I noticed at the Government Plantations at 

 Yatipauwa. where the soil is very poor and of a cabook character, that the trees 

 in oi'der to obtain the organic matter, sent their roots along the surface and up 

 into the dead stump of a tree actually replacing the wood of the same by the roots 

 of the tree growing up in the air. I think we ought to do more to try and increase 

 the humus matter in the soil if we are going to continue a free flow of latex in the 

 future. Mr. Wright referred to the fall of the leaf which certainly replaces to 

 a large extent the manurial and organic matter, but one must remember that there 

 is a very large amount stored up ; the Hevea being a surface feeder more or less, 

 the exhaustion is rapid. Mr. Wright in his calculation was referring to trees 

 planted 15 by 20. I myself think that ought to be the minimum distance at which 

 rubber should be planted. The actual growth of the roots far exceeds the calculated 



