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is to reserve the richest rubber regions, and if the natives have 
invaded these regions to clear them out. To make, in fact, forest 
reserves for Landolphias as has been done in the Malay Peninsula 
for Gutta percha and put them under the management of 
Europeans. The return given by these vines is however, very 
small. A three or four year-old Landolphia gave to Mr. BOOTH 
a ball of rubber about if inch through and he says an energetic 
and skilful rubber collector can hardly collect 9 such balls in a day, 
30 to 35 of which make a pound. Six year-old vines gave four 
balls, but then the old stems after milking it appears very apt 
to die. 
This certainly does not seem very promising. 
A Dutch planter M. SEEMBRUGGEN in Tijdschrift voor Negver- 
heeid en Landboow, Batavia, June 1906, discusses the cultivation 
of Willughbeia in Java. He considers that rubber trees can only 
be cultivated by people who can afford to wait many years, while 
rubber-vines can be more quickly grown. Our experience in the 
Straits is that rubber vines are much slower to give a return 
than rubber trees. But that the rubber must be obtained by 
mechanical methods from the vines. Apparently by beating the 
bark on blocks of wood. He describes the method of cultivating 
Willughbeia which not being a native of Java would have to be 
introduced from Sumatra. The objection raised by some people 
that this introduction, cultivation and preparation would be too 
costly, he meets by saying that all these introductions are costly 
and slow. All the Castilloa in Java was raised from one plant, 
Hevea braziliensis from some few seeds. Willughbeia firnia need 
only be introduced once. One could make innumerable marcottes, 
and from the plants too one could obtain a large quantity of 
fruits, which he says are good eatable fruits. As a matter of fact 
Willughbeia firma is not at all easy to reproduce by marcotting. 
It takes very many years to fruit. Bushes of it cultivated in the 
Botanic Gardens for about twenty years have certainly flowered 
regularly, but only once or twice produced one or two fruits. 
Landolphias have fruited here more easily but their seeds do not 
germinate. Recently I saw in Malacca a very small plantation on 
extremely bad soil belonging to a Chinaman who had some years 
ago borrowed enough money to plant a few trees of Para rubber. 
He planted too some Willughbeias. From the latter now grown 
into fairly large clumps he obtained nothing nor was there any 
likelihood of his ever getting any rubber from them. From the 
Para rubber he was making a good profit. It might be possible to 
cultivate rubber-vines profitably, but at present it seems very 
improbable. Their habit of producing numerous small stems from 
which it is difficult to get any rubber at all, and their very slow 
growth, militate considerably against their ever playing an impor- 
tant part in the production of the world’s rubber supply, after the 
easily accessible forests in which they occur wild, have been 
exploited. 
H. N. RIDLEY. 
