384 
are quite unsuited for cultivation, and are never likely to come into 
competition with the cultivated Heveas and Ficus. Funtumia , 
again does not seem according to the latest reports on its growth 
and return likely to be of greapdmportance in the future. Over the 
large area which produced these rubbers and which is now nearly 
exhausted of its stock, there is little or no ground suited for the 
cultivation of those rubbers which are possible to cultivate remune- 
ratively. The volume of rubber produced by this area must 
therefore be supplied by the increasing area of cultivation in the 
Malay Peninsula, Ceylon and a few other parts of the world. 
Mexico and Northern Brazil may perhaps be able to supply 
Castilloa and Hevea rubber in sufficient amount to replace the 
denuded forests of the Amazons. But in the meantime the demand 
is increasing and it will be long before the product can possibly be 
produced in sufficient quantity to fill even the present demand. 
Rubber then is almost the ideal cultivation for the planter. It is a 
product of universal, everyday use, and its area of production is 
distinctly a limited one. It is absurd to compare it with coffee a 
product of universal use but with an enormous producing area, 
practically the whole of the tropics, or Cinchona a plant of more 
limited area but very limited use. Both of these it is obvious could 
easily be overproduced, indeed is the case of most of the other 
tropical products. Rubber in fact is the only product known to me 
which while it has an universal use has so limited an area of produc- 
tion and it is also unique in having practically disappeared from a 
large area which supplied a considerable portion of the world’s 
supply, and in which it can never be replaced. Under- these 
exceptional circumstances it does' not seem probable that this 
product is likely to be overproduced for very many years if it ever 
is at all. — Editor. 
RUBBER DISEASES: LATEST MYCQLOGICAL 
NOTES. 
Result of Injuries to the Cambium, Etc. 
Mr. T. Petch, the mycologist of Peradeniya, has the following 
article in the September issue of the Magazine of the Agricultura 
Society : — 
In Mr. Richard Hoffman’S final article on rubber cultivation, 
in the Financial News, he discusses briefly the possibility of fungoid 
disease and dismisses the subject with the remark that it is “ very 
improbable, for the tree, being deciduous (viz., shedding its leaves 
annually), is not likely co contract a permanent leaf disease.” 
It is hoped that no planter will be led by this statement to 
neglect any suspicious appearance on the ground that the leaves 
