REPORT ON THE CULTIVATION OF RUB- 
BER IN CEYLON AND THE FEDERATED 
MALAY STATES AND JOHORE, 
BY FRED T. P. WATERHOUSE. 
To the Board of Agriculture and Forestry, 
and Hawaiian Rubber Growers Association, 
Territory of Hawaii. 
Gentlemen : — I beg to submit the following report concerning 
my recent trip to Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula for the pur- 
pose of investigating and reporting upon the status cf the Rubber 
Industry in those countries and the methods of planting, cultiva- 
tion, tapping and treatment of rubber, in use there, with a view- 
to giving the people of Hawaii information upon the said subjects. 
The status of the Rubber Industry in Hawaii and the condi- 
tions under which I made this trip are as follows : 
Ficus Elastica has for many years been a garden tree in 
Hawaii, but no attempt to make practical use of the same, has 
ever been made. 
Some twelve or fourteen years ago the then Commissioner of 
Agriculture of the Republic of Hawaii, introduced and dissemi- 
nated through the Islands a number of seeds of the Ceara Rubber 
tree. Xo especial notice was taken of the results until about five 
years ago when a tree, then seven or eight years of age, at 
Xahiku, Maui, was tapped and was found to yield an apparently 
good commercial article of rubber. 
Upon further investigation a number of vigorous, healthy Ceara 
rubber trees were found to be growing in the various districts 
of the Islands. 
Upon the showing made several companies for the cultivation 
of rubber were formed and a considerable number of trees planted. 
In the month of December, 1907, there were growing in the 
District of Koolau, Island of Maui, approximately twelve hun- 
dred acres of Ceara rubber trees and a very few trees of the 
Hevea and Castiloa varieties. 
