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



381 



PARA RUBBER IN BURMA. 



ITS PROGRESS. 



Since the introduction of Para rubber into 

 Burma, some fifteen or twenty years ago, the 

 cultivation has extended from Mergui, in the 

 south, to Bhamo and Myitkyina in the extreme 

 north, and today there are several thousand 

 acres under cultivation, and the area is rapidly 

 increasing, labour being cheap. In Bhamo, Mr 

 Kohu has a small plantation, the trees being 

 about fifteen years old. Here the results have 

 been most favourable; so much so, that last year 

 the rubber from this plantation, because of its 

 texture and quality, brought Is. 3d. more per 

 pound than was paid for any other Plantation 

 rubber placed upon the London market during 

 the season. The seeds, too, from this planta- 

 tion, of which about 90 per cent, germinate, 

 produce strong, healthy plants, equal, if not 

 superior, to those obtained from Ceylon seed, 

 the latter very often producing twisted plants 

 which is in no way due to the position in which 

 the seeds are planted. In the Myitkynia Dis- 

 trict, Mr K Young has 2,400 acres, of which up 

 to date it has only been possible to plant 500 

 acres, but the trees, some of which are now 

 nearly three years old, are all doing well. About 

 six years ago, in Myitkyina town, some trees 

 were planted as an experiment in tho Forest 

 compound. This year, these trees were tapped, 

 and though the method of tapping was most 

 primitive, the results obtained were excellent 

 both as to quality and quantity. Further south 

 in Tounghoo, Shwegyin and the vicinity of 

 Rangoon and Amherst there are large planta- 

 tions all of which are doing well, thereby 

 going to prove that the whole of Burma 

 (with perhaps the exception of the dry zone 

 round about Pokokhu, Myingyan, Sagaing, 

 Shwebo, etc.) is pre-eminently suitable for the 

 cultivation of Para. As a matter of fact, even 

 in the dry zone the soil compares very favourably 

 with that in some parts of Ceylon which pro- 

 duces rubber. 



The Government of Burma are only too will- 

 ing to help bona fide planters. Such may have 

 for the asking, in any District which has been de- 

 clared by the Government as a rubber producing 

 tract, 1,200 acres exempt from taxation for a 

 period of from eight to twelve years, on a lease- 

 hold for thirty years, with the option of renewal 

 for another twenty years. At the end of the 

 eight or twelve year period, as the case may be, 

 the land is taxed at the paddy rate assessment, 

 which in no case exceeds Rs. 1-8 per acre. It is 

 true that in consequence of large Companies 

 being formed for the purpose of rubber cultiva- 

 tion, Government have id view the revision of 

 the foregoing concessions, but the revision will 

 only be nominal, after all, and will only affect 

 certain Districts. The soil of Burma is as rich 

 as any in the world, being a sandy loam in some 

 parts and a volcanic ash in others The moun- 

 tain ranges trend in such a direction that the 

 South West Monsoon sweeps right up the valleys 

 without hindrance, thereby ensuring an equal 

 distribution of moisture. Thus, from a climatic 

 point of view there is little to be desired. So 



far, the only pests which have attacked rubber 

 have been white ants, male crickets, pig, deer, 

 and sambhur, which latter are a nuisance in the 

 north. The two first mentioned are easily got 

 rid of by using kerosene oil emulsion of sulphuric 

 acid, the method being to inject it into their 

 nests or holes. As for the game pest, after bar- 

 bed wire fencing, a man with a gun is very effec- 

 tive, besides it keeps, the pot boiling, a thing 

 much to be desired in a land where markets 

 are few and far between. — M. Mail, Oct. 12 



NEW RUBBER DRYING METHODS. 



Paradise Factory at Ka.tang Described. 



According to the latest issue of " Grenier's 

 Rubber News" the Paradise estate at Kajang, 

 Selangor, has erected a factory in which the 

 drying of rubber will probably mark a new era 

 in the local manufacture of rubber. The factory 

 is a substantial two-stureyed building of brick- 

 work, with an iron roof. When it became neces- 

 sary to build a factory on the above-named 

 estate Mr. E. V. Carey, with characteristic up- 

 to-dateness, decided to adopt a method of drying 

 rubber by hot air forced through the rubber by 

 mechanical power, the obvious advantage of 

 this method being that the rubber will be dried 

 probably in a tenth of the time taken by the 

 ordinary methods. If the Paradise method 

 proves success as far as the quality of the dried 

 rubber is concerned it will be obvious from the 

 financial point of view that the departure will 

 come as a boon. 



The main plan of the Paradise factory comprises 

 a washing and drying house, 70 feet by 35 feet, 

 packing room 24 feet by 35 feet and an engine 

 room 50 feet by 21 feet— all on the ground floor. 

 The upper floor holds three airtight cubicles, 

 each of these measuring 50 feet by 12 feet, for the 

 drying of crepe. On one side of the washing 

 and drying house on the ground floor are four 

 of Shaw's washing machines, and on the other 

 are six patent rubber driers, each chamber of 

 which contains 24 trays, on which the rubber is 

 placed, hot air being forced through from a fur- 

 nace outside the building by fans. There is 

 also a large furnace serving to distribute hot air 

 into the cubicles on the upper floor by means 

 of pipes, which are carried on that floor to the 

 cubicles and which are perforated at certain in- 

 tervals so as to distribute the air as evenly as 

 possible. The method adopted on the ground 

 floor of dryiDg by chambers has already been 

 tried with great success in Ceylon for drying 

 rubber. 



The method of drying in cubicles adopted on 

 the upper floor of the Paradise factory has al- 

 ready been tried with great success for the dry- 

 ing of cocoa in Ceylon, but has not been previ- 

 ously tried for rubber. If the combined systems, 

 chambers and cubicles as introduced on Para- 

 dise, prove a success it is estimated that as much 

 as 1,000 lb of rubber could be dried in a day of 

 ten hours. It remains to be proved what parti- 

 cular form of rubber will lend itself to this me- 

 thod of drying. 



