THE GROWTH OF HEVEA BRASILIENSIS IN THE 
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
By Harry S. Yates 
{From the Botanical Section of the Biological Laborat<jtry , Bureau of Science, 
Manila) 
ONE TEXT FIGURE 
Probably no agricultural industry within the Tropics has un- 
dergone so remarkable a development during the past twenty 
years as has the plantation-rubber industry. Hevea hrasiliensis, 
the principal source of plantation rubber, was first grown under 
cultiva,tion when it was introduced into Ceylon about 1877.^ 
Very little further planting was done until the experimental 
stage was passed and seed became available in quantity. 
The beginning of the cultivation of Hevea in Ceylon may be 
said to date from about 1890 to 1895 though for the first 
ten years development was comparatively slow. In Malaya 
Hevea attracted very little attention until about 1897, when, 
coffee becoming less profitable, planters saw the need of some 
product to supplement or replace it. However, when the Ma- 
layan planters did turn their attention to rubber, the develop- 
ment of the industry, stimulated by the high price prevailing 
for the product, took place very rapidly ; and at present Malaya 
produces a very large share of the plantation rubber of the world. 
The cultivation of Hevea having proved successful and profitable 
in Ceylon and Malaya, many plantations have been started in 
other countries ; more especially in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, India, 
Burma, Cochin China, New Guinea, and other places in the 
Asiatic Tropics, the Gold Coast and elsewhere in Africa, and in 
various parts of tropical America. The area planted to rubber 
in Malaya alone up to and including 1916 was 385,372 hectares 
(951,870 acres) ,2 while the total area planted to rubber in the 
’ Those interested in an account of the early development of the industry 
are referred to Fetch, Notes on the history of the plantation rubber industry 
of the East, Ann. Roy. Bot. Card. Peradeniya 5 (1914) 433-520; and Burkill, 
The treatment to which the Para rubber trees of the botanic gardens, Sin- 
gapore, have been subjected, Gardens' Bull. 1 (1915) 247-295. 
’ India Rubber Journ. No. 13, 55 (1918) 10. 
501 
