Sept. 1, 1903.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURLST. 
185 
success, lu many couutries it seems to Lave 
proved a failure, the climate being unsuitable. In 
the Malay Peninsula it appears to have been more 
successful than in almost any other country 
both in rapidity of growth and production of 
rubber, and the only thing to be rej,'retted is that 
planter's did not take up the cultivation ten years 
Ago.— Sfi-aits Times, July 1. 
. 0 
EUBBEE IN THE FEDERATED MALAY 
STATES AND THE STEAITS : 
HOW SIR F. 8WETTENHAM AND SIR HUGH 
LOW DEVELOPED NEW INDUSTRIES 
IN THE STATES. 
ABOUT 12,000 ACRES OCCUPIED RY RUBBER- 
SAY 3,000,000 TREES— IN THE MALAY 
PENINSULA. 
(BY MR. DONALD MACKAY.) 
[In answer to our inquiry, our old friend 
Mr Mackay has been good enough to give us 
the following useful information. — Ed. CO.] 
July 24th. — I am reminded of -your enquiry 
aJbont rubber in the Straits. I think you meant 
the " Federated Malay States" wliich Jo not like 
being classfd as part of the Straits (any more than 
.Scotland likes being classed as part of England.) 
I am afraid my information is only enough to 
enable me to answer your question in a veiy rough 
fashion, but here it is for you. 
The greatest progress in rubber has been made 
in Selaugor which is, undoubtedly, the Premier 
State in agriculture, the same as Perak is in tin- 
mining. It is estimated that Selangor has rubber 
planted thioagh close on 10,000 acres and has con- 
siderably over two million trees growing from no 
age, or under a year planted up to six. One half of 
the total quantity is under age or less than a year 
planted. Negri Sembilan comes next with some- 
tliing like 1,500 acres and over 310,000 trees from 
less than one up to six years growing. Unlike the 
neighbouring State it has little more than a tenth 
uniler age, 
Perak comes last with broken and uncertain 
figures, but I am not inclined to put the total 
higher than 50,000 trees of all ages. Province 
Wellesley lias a good many rubbers growing. I can 
only in the abseoee of returns, hazard a guess of 
half-a-million trees growiuer. I think the whole 
Straits and States cau be put at three millions. 
Out of the total there are not a hundred-thousand 
five and six years old, so that will give you an 
idea of the probable influence in the next few years 
en the market of the produce of the Straits and 
Stiites, This, I take it, is what your correspondent 
has in view in asking for information about this 
part of H M's tropical dominions, or he may be 
making an estimate to decide whether in view of 
the great areas, over wide-spread surfaces, now 
pKanted with rubbers, it is not advisable to 
call a halt. 
We are a long way off the "end of our 
tether " in respect of what is considered suitable 
land which so far has been all on the flat. I am 
inclined to think, judging from the localities of 
the indigenous rubber trees in the forett clad slopes, 
that the Para might do as well there if not better 
thanonthealluviumauddecomposed vegetable mat- 
ter of the more or less swampy waterlogged lauds 
on which the greater part of the planting in Selan- 
gor has been done, and, iudeeil, in the other states 
as well. Probably lands so situated might not haire 
been chosen, but for the failure of Liberian Coflee 
in respect of paying prices and the estates having 
been drained for the growth of that product. 'J he 
planting in Province Wellesley is on lands drained 
for sugarcanes and there is, figuratively speaking, 
any amount of such abandoned land. One esiate 
alone last year put 50,000 coconuts in nurseries to 
utilise lands abandoned for cane-growing. 
It may exercise your active brain why Selangor, 
a smaller state than Perak, took such a decided lead 
in planting Coffee. (It is natural enough liaving 
taken that lead that it should keep it up in Rubber.) 
I can only attribute it to the one man influence; 
there is no superiority in . soil or difference in 
climate to account tor it. The present Governor 
of the Straits was resident in Selangor 22 years or 
so ago. He started the railway from Klang to Kwala 
Lumpor and virtually started Coffee planting with 
it, but not on the swamp lands; it began and was 
continued on the higher lands until the accident of 
some coffee plants, growing luxuriantly in a Malay 
garden on the borders of the swampy low-land re- 
vealed the possibilities of thatsoil. (Of some of which 
William Forsythe and others had a dearly-bought 
experience in the cofifee-j; rowing days when land at 
Klang was all the rage.) What Sir Frank Swetten- 
ham was to Selangor in influencing progress. Sir 
Hugh Low was at the same lime to Perak in the 
introduction of new products, (he introduced the 
Para see 1 from which grew the 250 trees which 
have been giving much of the seed which has 
planted up so much), establishing Experimental 
Gardens andgenerally enthusiastic with knowledge 
in all that concerned agricultural development. 
Our High Commissioner crowned his Federation 
labaurs by his excellent speech the other day at 
the opening of the Federal Conference in Kwala 
Lumpor. 
COCONUT OIL EXPORTS FROM SINGA- 
PORE TO AMERICA. 
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "STRAITS TIMES.") 
Sir, — Singapore is a large producer of coconuti oil 
both for local conenmption and for export, chiefly the 
former. • For cooking purposes the oocsnmption 
amoDgat Asiatics is very laige, and there are several 
grades of quality, but the best ia produced by a re- 
fining process eliminating the odour and taste peculiar 
to the coconut. The difference between the price of 
ordinary and refined oil is as 13 is to 16. The aac- 
cess of the superior oil locally seemed assured at first, 
but American lards were introduced to this market 
and as they are solid even iu this climate they prac- 
tically killed the demand for the superior oil, though 
much dearer in price. Some experimental shipments 
to San Francisco, however, met with snc-eas, 
and a new lease of life was given to the refinery, 
a firm in Portland, Oregon, having contracted 
for the whole production at a profitable price. 
Two months ago, however, a telegram was received in 
Singapore, advising that a heavj Import Duty had been 
placed on the oil, and cancelling all outstanding 
contracts. Written advices now to hand show that ILj 
oil, which solidifies iu Culitornia, was successfully 
competing on the Pacific Coast with American lards, 
and that the people interested in the latter articles 
petitioned Washington with the result that the oil 
had been removed from the class of duty free oil?, 
and been graded as batter paying 3^ gold cents duty 
on a cost of 5j gold cents equal to 60 per cent ad 
Valorem, The result ia that the Singapore refinery 
has been closed, and the AmeiicaQ who imporced 
