and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society,— August, 1911. 



183 



THE INTERNATIONAL RUBBER 

 EXHIBITION. 



LECTURES AT THE CONFERENCE. 



In connection with the Exhibition, a con- 

 ference was held. Sir Henry Blake presided, 

 and among those present, were : Professor 

 Wildeman, Dr. Paul Alexander iDr. F Fran, Dr 

 Ernst Stern, Dr. Landing Sachs, Dr. Werner 

 Each, Dr. J Hnber, Mr H Harael Smith, and 

 Mr A Staines Manders (the manager ot the 

 Exhibition.) 



Sir Henky Blake— in his opening address- 

 said : — In 1908 it was ray pleasant duty, on 

 behalf of myself and the committee, to welcome 

 the foreign delegates and growers to our shores 

 — then strangers ; but today, with both hands 

 extended, I welcome old friends, whose presence 

 here today is an assurance in itself that the 

 result of" the Exhibition of 1908 has been 

 valuable to every branch of the rubber in- 

 dustry. Of this, if your presence here today 

 were not sufficient proof, there is ample proof 

 in the exhibits shown under our roof from 

 every part — I believe from 'every rubber-grow- 

 ing country in theworld. From abroad we have 

 the machine maker, who has sent his improved 

 machinery, and the chemist, who has illus- 

 trated the results of his investigations in the 

 analysis of rubber, and the manufacturer has 

 shown us the improvement in and expansion of 

 new uses for the raw product. When we last 

 met 1 think the area under rubber in the 

 Middle East alone was about 450,000 acres. 

 Today that acreage has been more than doubled; 

 and in South America and Central America, 

 East and West Africa, the increase in 

 the acreage has probably been in about the 

 same proportion. However, when considering 

 this question of the largo increase of acreage, in 

 respect of the possible output of rubber in the 

 near future, I think we must make considerable 

 deductions for plantations possibly established 

 under unfavourable conditions of sod or climate 

 or situation, as experience will show. But I 

 think, on the whole, we must remember that 

 the Para trees planted since 1908 cannot begin 

 to show the results of their planting before 1913 

 at the earliest, and we must wait a couple of 

 years longer before we know the result ot that 

 large investment in new plantations. In the 

 meantime the continued experiments, and the 

 experience of last three years, cannot but be 

 beneficial to these new plantations. 



I may say generally that in the Near East the 

 planter has rather affected — almost exclusively 

 affected — the Hevea Brasiliensis, or tho Para 

 tree ; but, if my information be correct, the 

 sometimes despised Ceara tree is about to come 

 into favour. I have heard on reliable authority, 

 from a gentleman in the Exhibition, of at least 

 one Ceara plantation which has begun to yield 

 its harvest two years aitor planting. Of course, 

 that would make a very profound difference in 

 the consideration of planting in certain coun- 

 tries where the Hevea has not been particularly 

 successful up to the present. These matters as 

 regards Ceara and Hevea are really matters for 

 the pxperimenter— the bronzed experimenter 

 in the held— who faces the discomforts and dis- 



eases incidental to tropical work in the held 

 and jungle. But, as we know, he only starts 

 t he quarry. When we have the latex it goes to 

 the chemist, who tortures it through various 

 retorts, until he has obtained an answer to his 

 questions as to its likes and dislikes, its at- 

 traction and repulsion, and as to the reasons 

 of its resilience and strength. We know 

 that some of them — have thrown aside 

 the latex, flung it aside, and, inspired by 

 a wild fury of investigation, have dragged the 

 very vitals from the secrets of Nature, and have 

 presented this Exhibition with a row of bottles 

 and a small sheet of synthetic rubber. Well, 

 this is rather startling at first ; but, after all, 

 ivhen we consider that if orw of these scientists 

 produced a pint of milk and a pat of butter 

 from a bundle of hay we may be assured of one 

 thing, that the price of hay would go up. We 

 may expect the same as regards the materials 

 of which synthetic rubber is made, so that I 

 do not think it is so disquieting in the end. But 

 one thing it does do — it points to the necessity 

 for strict economy on all our plantations, and 

 for a reduction in the cost of production. Of 

 course, in regard to the Ceara trees there have 

 been great impro; ernents in the tapping— in- 

 deed, there have been improvements in the 

 tapping of both, but specially in the case of 

 the Ceara ; and, of course, you know the treat- 

 ment of the tapping of Ceara is quite a different 

 problem from that of Hevea. We do not know 

 up to the present what the effect of that will be. 



The President concluded by congratulating 

 those present on the excellence of the Exhibi- 

 tion. These preliminary proceedings were then 

 brought to a close because of the visit of Her 

 Highness Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig- 

 Holstein to the Exhibition. The Princess was 

 escorted around the Exhibition by Sir Henry 

 Blake, and expressed herself highly pleased with 

 hervisit. She was accompanied byLady Blake and 

 Mrs.Hawkes, lady-in-waiting, and was presented 

 with a bouquet by Miss Fulton, the secretary, 

 on entering the Exhibition, and with another, 

 at the Belgian section, by Miss Pollet, daughter 

 of the Consul-General for Belgium. 



During the afternoon, Mr. R Fyffe, of the 

 Botanical and Forestry Department at Entebbe, 

 Uganda, read a paper entitled 



"RUBBER IN UGANDA, 



and in the course of his remarks said that the 

 first year in which rubber figured as an article 

 of export from Uganda was in 1902, and during 

 that year 68,000 lb. were exported. A study of 

 the composition of the forests of Uganda showed 

 that at least three distinct types existed, in 

 only one of these, was Funtumia elastica found. 

 Following the discovery of Funtumia elastica, 

 steps were taken to preserve the trees, and the 

 forests containing it, which were large, were 

 being leased only to responsible companies, who 

 had to observe regulations brought out by the 

 Government for the purpose of conservation. 

 At present the most approved method of 

 tapping was the herringbone " system. 

 Unlike the Para rubber tree, Funtumia 

 elastica had no wound response and gave 

 the best results, from three to four tap- 

 pings in a year. The trees could be tapped 



