THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 1, 1901. 
"PARA RUBBER IN BURMA"; 
A MEMORIAL PROM THE CEYLON 
PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION. 
The Memorial of the Planters' Association 
to Mr. Chamberlain, on the above subject, 
will be found given verbatim below. 
At first sight, the protest it embodies 
may seem narrow-minded and altogether 
unworthy of the planters' representative 
institution in the first of Crown Colo- 
nies. But 'a little further ; consideration 
and reflection will, we think, show the 
movement to be both justifiable and well- 
timed, in order that a clear understanding 
may be arrived at as to the purpose to be 
held in view by the Indian Government in 
forming experimental plantations for rubber- 
growing in Burma. One enthusiastic writer, 
some time ago, went so far as to anticipate 
a large increase to the revenue from the 
extension of rubber plantations by Govern- 
ment in suitable localities in Burma. The 
Memorial speaks of 5,000 acres; but we 
think one estimate was that the Government 
might extend their planting to 10,000 ! Now, 
this undoubtedly would be an interference 
with private enterprise ; because the pro- 
duce would have to be sent to Europe or 
America to find a market. The case of 
Cinchona is very different ; for, all the pro- 
duce of the Government plantations of this 
bark is required for local consumption in 
the laboratories at work for the benefit of 
poor fever- stricken people in India. No such 
philanthropic object can be pleaded in the 
case of " rubber." True the authorities are 
fully justified in leading the way in ex- 
ploiting a new product either in their Botanic 
Gardens or in an experimental plantation. 
To such a mission in the case of Burma, 
where private capitalists interested in plant- 
ing are few and far between, there can be 
no valid objection, and the Government of 
India is to be congratulated on having in 
cularly as it stands at the present time in 
Ceylon and the Straits Settlements ; and 
enough of progress is reported to show that 
for the Indian Government to plant up 5,(X>0 
acres with the view of becoming rubber 
throwers for the markets of the West, would 
be a serious and unjustifiable interference 
with private planters in the adjacent Colonies 
if not later on in Burma itself. To an ex- 
perimental plantation of a few hundred acres, 
no such objection could be raisd, provided 
it wpve understood that Government would 
be prepared to dispose of their successful 
venture to private capitalists whenever such 
oame forward with a price adequate to the 
outlay incurred. 
the spot one so 
well-qualified to take an 
interest in rubber experiments as is Major 
J. A. Wyllie of the Indian Staff Corps who 
recently addressed us on the subject of 
certain rubber varieties. It is when suc- 
cessful results have been attained and 
when the industry has been established on 
a profitable basis, that the Indian Govern- 
ment must stand on one side, refrain from 
shipping the product and be prepared to sell 
their plantation to the highest bidder and look 
for their reward through an infiux of capital- 
ists and practical planters ready to purchase 
or rent Crown land suitable for rubber plan- 
tations and to go ahead as cultivators. This, 
we feel sure, is all that the Planters' Asso- 
ciation requires. Their Memorial is not in- 
tended to stop an interesting official ex- 
periment in rubber planting ; but to make 
it clear from the outset that the Govern- 
ment of India is not to compete as producers 
in the home market ; and we have no doubt 
that the required assurance will be forth- 
coming. . , , „ „. -. 
Incidentally, the Memorial before us aftords 
Mr. Chamberlain and all its readers, a good 
deal of interesting information respecting 
the rubber-growing enterprise, more parti- 
The following is tlie text of the Memorial sent 
by tiie Planters' Association of Ceylon to the 
Secretary of State of the Colonies on the subject 
of experimental cultivation of Para Rubber in Bur- 
ma wliich we were ()blif;ed to \V'h\ over Monday : — 
To the Ri<i;ht Hon. Joseph Chambeelain, M.P., 
His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, 
Downing Street, London- 
The Humble Memorial of the Planters' Associatiun 
of Ceylcn, and others. 
Respectfully Sheweth : — 
1. That your Memorialists, having received in- 
formation that the Government of India is taking 
steps to develop the cultivation on a large scale of 
Eubber-producing trees in Burmah notably the Para 
Rubber tree— Hevea brasiliensis, Mull. Aig— in the 
Tenasserim division of Bormah, desire to bring the 
question under your consideration. 
2 Since 188U, when the late Director of the Boyal 
Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, drew up notes on some 
trees yielding India Rubber, considerable interest has 
been taken in the cultivation of Rubber both in 
Ceylon and in the Straits Settlements, andy our Memo- 
rialists now approach you in the hope that His 
Majesty's Government may make such representa- 
tion as will prevail upon the Government of India 
not to enter into the field as competitors w th private 
enterprise in the Markets of the World. 
3. In a report of the Planters' Association of 
Ceylon a few years ago the following sentences 
appear: — "The increasing; demand for Rubber both 
in Europe and the United States has again of late 
drawn the attention of the Planting Community to 
this product, and the area being planted with the 
Para variety is rapidly increasing. Several of the 
lower district estates have a fair acreage under this 
cultivation." Since the above was written the 
planting of Para and other varieties of Rubber yield- 
ing trees has been considerably extended and from 
the returns furnished for " Ferguson's Handbook and 
Directory " it has been estimated that there are now 
over 2,500 acres planted with trees of all ages and 
varieties in Ceylou alone. 
These trees have in most cases been planted on 
tea and cacao estates as a subsidiary cultivation with 
a view to mitigate the losses sustaineS by planters 
through the serious decline in the price of Tea. 
The following is from a report of Mr. Willis, 
Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, 
dated 1898: — "From what I saw of the condition of 
he trees and the results of the tappings, I am 
strongly confirmed in my previous opinion luat the 
cultivation of rubber bids fair to form a i rofitable 
industry in Ceylon aud a useful adjunct to ine larger 
industry of; ea and coconut cultivation." In his 
report for 1899 Mr. Willis; points out that six or more 
years must elapse before any returns are forthcoming 
and warns planters that in a few years substitutes for 
Rubber may be largely used and cause a drop in the 
price. 
