DUTCH GOVERNMENT PLANTATION OF 
GUTTA PERCHA AT TJEPETIR. 
o 
In the Bulletin for July the Government Gutta plantations at 
Tjepelir are referred to (page 227). 
Bv the courtesy of BEER SPAKI.ER, the Consul-General for the 
Netherlands in Singapore ami Dr. Trovip de Haas of Buitenzorg, 
I have recently been afforded an opportunity of visiting this plant- 
ation. I am also indebted to Heek A. F. DA Neve who was good 
enough to go round with me. 
The area reserved for this plantation is about 6ooo acres situ- 
ated in the hill country near the Salak and Gede volcanoes. The 
elevation is over 2,000 feet above the sea. It is about an hour’s 
drive from Tjebadak, a station on the main line some two hours 
from Batavia. 
The soil is excellent — a rich volcanic loam in which anything 
would grow. The surface is undulating — in some places the slopes 
are sti ep. 
Roughly about i,coo acres have so far been planted. The oldest 
trees are some I 7 years old, and these appear to be over 30 feet in 
height. The planted area is now being increased at the rate of 
some 500 or 600 acres a year. Seed is obtained, I understand, 
Com the Government plantations at Poer Wokarta and grown in 
nurseries There were 90,000 plants in the nurseries at the time 
of my vis t. These young plants are handed over to natives when 
8 or 9 mon hs old, and p'anted by them in fields of hill padi or 
Indian corn, 20 feet apart. 
These people contract with Government to clear the land and 
to plant and maintain the Dichopsis oblongifolium plants for 3 
\ears at 8 guilders a bauw (2 acres). They get what they can off 
the land by their padi crops as well. 
After 3 years the plantations pass into the charge ol Government* 
About 1 cooly, I think, is employed for every 8 acres. 
The trees in all stages look extremely healthy. They are not 
grown under shade at all — some were pointed out to me as having 
suffered from the effects of shade, which has now all been re- 
moved. 
The chief enemy of the young trees is a moth, Rkodeneura 
mvtaca, the caterpillars of which destroy the young shoots at the 
extremities of branches. 
Great care is taken to prevent the planting out of hybrid plants. 
Feed is brought from known and isolated trees, and any plant 
showing signs of hybridization is removed from the nurseries 
before it is 2 months old. One cooly was in charge of tlie nur- 
series of 90,000 plants. 
