170 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



It will be noted that only the first year (1903) 

 came near the average. Betweenthe 12 years 1891 

 and 1902 (inclusive) there wore only 4 years be- 

 low the average — three very little below and 

 only one (1892) so low as 60 - 83 ; while 8 years 

 gave 119-03, 89 67, 92'23, 101 06, 8273, 10311, 

 8368 and 1 18 70 iuches respaetively. Looking at 

 these figures and the succeeding record of a 

 series ot 8^ lean years, are we bound to autici- 

 patetwomore years — 1912-1913 — before the com- 

 paratively dry cycle of eleven years comes to an 

 end ? There is some cause for this expectation ; 

 and yet who dare say that we may not, possibly, 

 have " the unexpected " to happen even during 

 the rest of the present year, with a wet closing 

 of the South- West, and a very rainy Nortri- 

 Easfc Monsoon ? In the meantime, we heartily 

 trust that the Simla predictions of immediate 

 further rains throughout India during the rest 

 of July may be realised, and we hope, a wet 

 August may follow. For India, the risks from 

 a deficient rainfall are serious and momentous 

 to a degree never realised in this favoured, sea- 

 girt, island between the two monsoons. 



THE INTRODUCTION OF PARA RUB- 

 BER INTO THE MALAY STATES. 



CREDIT GIVEN WHERE CREDIT IS 

 DUE ; 



And Correction of a Mistake Unwittingly 

 made in the lecture of november 

 last before the royal colonial 

 Institute on "Cey*lon, the 

 Malay States and Java.'' 



An apology is due to our distinguished and 

 esteemed correspondent Henry N. Ridley, Esq., 

 f.r.s., c.m.g., &c, for the delay in publishing 

 a letter and extracts he was good enough to 

 send us some time back, and which at the time 

 were duly acknowledged, with thanks, and the 

 promise of early attention. — On the otber hand, 

 some detay was required to enable a search to 

 be made among the references and authorities 

 upon which certain remarks offered in last Nov- 

 ember's "Lecture'' about "Ceylon, Malay States 

 and Java" dwelling on the very early days of 

 "Rubber' 1 in the Malay States. But this was 

 more difficult than we expected, owing to the 

 misplacing of a box of papers, recently re- 

 covered; and only now have we been able to deal 

 with the matter properly. The fact is that in 

 our preparation, our dependence had to be 

 mainly on the previous Papers by such officers 

 as Mr. (now Sir) Frank Swettenham, Sir Wm. 

 Treacher, Mr. W. E. Maxwell and Mr. (now 

 Sir) Hugh Clifford for the early history and ad- 

 ministrative progress of the Malay States; and 

 better authorities generally could not have been 

 fjund. But, on the point of the inception and 

 early days of Rubber Cultivation in Perak and 

 other States, there was really more particular 

 and accurate information in a direction not 

 available to the Lecturer at the time. This 

 was the "Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits 

 and Federated Malay States" and in the 

 issue for January, 19U3, we now find Mr, 

 Ridley had given the "History of the in- 



troduction of Para Rubber | into the Malay 

 Peninsula." This we had read at the time, 

 but had forgotten seven to eight ye»rs 

 later, whilo " Historical Notes oti the Rub- 

 ber Industry" in the number of the same 

 periodical for June, 1910, had not reached 

 us. The Magazine, unfortunately, was not 

 available when we were putting the lecture 

 together. Sir Hugh Low, undoubtedly, de- 

 serves great credit for his special interest in the 

 early rubber plants in Perak ; but the Lecturer 

 was wrong in inferring, from certain passages 

 which were quoted that he was the first to 

 introduce Hevea plants or to begin the culti- 

 vation. Indeed Sir Hugh Low himself, never 

 made such a claim ; nor would he do so. The 

 absolutely correct account of the very begin- 

 ning of the Industry in Rubber in Malaga, 

 which has become so important for the Fede 

 rated Malay States, is that formally given- 

 by Mr. Ridley in June, 1903, and again (in re- 

 viewing Dr. Willis's " Agriculture in the Tro- 

 pics") in June, 1910; and this has been briefly 

 summarised in the letter of 2nd April last as 

 follows : — 



Botanic Cardans, Singapore, 

 April 12th, 1911. 



John Ferguson, Esq., c m.g., &c., Ceylon. Dear 

 Sir, — It is with some surprise and much regret 

 that I read in your lecture to the Royal Colonial 

 Institute on " Ceylon, the Malay States and 

 Java," a reiteration of the myth as to the intro- 

 duction of Para rubber and its cultivation in the 

 Malay Peninsula. It is an entirely erroneous 

 story which I disproved long ago in the " Agri- 

 cultural Bulletin " (a copy of which I send you.) 

 Sir Hugh Low did not introduce the Para rubber 

 tree at all from Ceylon or elsewhere. The plants 

 were sent to the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, 

 from Kew, and some were planted in Perak by 

 MrMurtonof the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, 

 some in Sir Hugh Low's garden and others(which 

 Low never saw) in other parts of Perak. But it 

 was not from the descendants of these trees that 

 the Peninsula was planted upto auy large extent; 

 but from the trees propagated by Mr Cantley in 

 the Botauic Gardens, in Singapore, whence in 

 reality the whole industry sprung. Of the part 

 played by Sir Frank Swettenham in this 

 I have not fully dilated in my articles on the 

 industry, and foundation of the cultivation. 

 He did not believe in the value of the culti- 

 vation till he left Singapore and a few days 

 before that reprimanded me for wasting time 

 on cultivating the tree. Previously when at 

 length I had worried the plantersiuto trying this 

 cultivation, a Dyak was told to ascend to the top 

 of one of the old trees of Sir Hugh's date and get 

 some rubber. The Dyak did so and came back and 

 said there was ii)ne. Soon after, down came over 

 100 of the finest trees in the Peninsula. Mr. R. 

 Dei ry then attacked the rest of the trees and took 

 out a quantity of first class rubber and sold it in 

 London at a good price,and stopped the reaction 

 against rubber which set in immediately the 

 story was published that an official had proved 

 the Para tree valueless. 



Since the Hevea cultivation has proved a suc- 

 cess all kinds of people have come to the front 

 and calmly annexed the credit in spite of the 



