4*5 
gets only twice as much. X lie rocks ahead are the possibility of 
some imitation being manufactured that would ruin the market, and 
the more probable possibility of some blight, canker, or fungus 
attacking the plants, and if not killing them, spoiling their rubber- 
producing capacity. All Ceylon men know how a large area of one 
kind of cultivation tends to produce disease, which, in a climate 
such as this, where there are no marked season to check its ravages, 
may absolutely ruin everything* So f al ', however, white ants a. e 
the only serious enemies that have been found. I he Process 
of Manufacture is exceedingly simple, but as it has hardly yet 
advanced beyond the experimental stage, tire planters do not 
know what difficulties they may have to contend with when called 
upon to produce 400 or 500 lbs. a day, as they would ha\ e to do if 
they are going to pay the ,£,30 or /- 5 0 profit per acre, to w hich tht \ 
aspire. And against their doing this l honestly see no insurmount- 
able barrier so far, but we must not forget that these figures aie 
based entirely on the results of experiments on a small scale, nobody 
yet having a large area of tapable trees, but it appears from the 
data we have to go on that an acre of land may reasonably be ex- 
pected to carry 150 trees, each of which at six years old, should 
give one pound of rubber annually. With rubber at present prices 
this means a gross production of nearly £'40 per acre. Expenses 
.should not be heavy', manufacture would cost little, and cultiva- 
tion nothing. I should be inclined to advise Intending Investors 
to wait another year or two, by which time many places will be in 
bearing, and the real possibilities of the enterprise established. 
One thing that appears evident is that Para rubber grows better 
here than in Ceylon, and much Ceylon money and energy is being 
brought into this country. As to getting good land, there is plenty 
of land to be had, but you have to go a long way off for it now. 
Practically all the good land that is w'ell situated has been taken up. 
but could be bought from the owners at a price. The country is 
very Insufficiently roaded, and the difficulties of establishing an 
estate in the middle of the jungle without a road can only be 
appreciated bv those who have tried to do it. -There are two 
chief classes v of land, on both of which rubber appears to grow 
equally well. (1). The high land, a red or yellow' soil, chiefly 
laterite in various forms of decomposition, and (2), the alluvial, 
black clay land on the sea border. Both kinds have their advo- 
cates, but on the principle that the richer soil should give the better - 
results I should prefer the alluvial. 
Mr. RurilSitFORt) writes:— “In a recent issue of your paper there 
appeared an interesting article on ‘The Cultivation of the Rubber 
Tree.' While the writer justly praised the quality of the cultivated 
‘Para’ rubber from Ceylon, 1 would desire to point out that the 
opinions expressed with regard to cultivated rubber from the Malay 
Peninsula are not quite consistent with the facts. The writer 
says: — "T11 many other British possessions situated in or near the. 
tropics the conditions are suitable for rubber cultivation, and con- 
siderable success has attended its introduction into the Malay 
Peninsula, but, although the produce has been satisfactory in 
