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that date had not thought of Para rubber as being a suitable 
cultivation for Java, and as far as I can gather no experiments or 
records of observations were made in Java till after 1899. Mr. Willis 
does not even mention Dr. Trimen’s work, which deserves credit 
as he was the first, I believe, to tap the rubber tree in the East, 
and to record his results. 
Meanwhile, the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, was at work from 
1889, and was laying the foundation of the industry and indeed had 
submitted saleable rubber of first class quality to experts, and had 
proved that the industry would pay well before Mr. Willis had ever 
seen a rubber tree. Surely in an account of the rise of the industry 
purporting to be a history of the Agriculture of the World, this work 
should not have been entirely ignored. It was known to most of the 
planters of the East Indies and to many, I am sure, in Ceylon. 
It would be too long to detail all the discoveries and inventions 
made in the Straits Settlements and F. M. S. connected with the 
industry. They include most of the systems of tapping ( except the 
spiral, which proved a failure); the crepe machines, the forms of 
rubber known as biscuit, block, crepe and sheet, the wound-response, 
actual returns of the tree, best method of packing seeds, and the 
pests, Fomes, Diplodia Hymenochoete, Termes Gestroi, etc., and 
methods of dealing with them. To Ceylon we must credit the worm- 
machine ( invented after the crepe machine ) spiral tapping, the pric- 
ker and Biffeu’s centrifugalizer and the Northway knife. Honour 
to whom honour is due, the Botanic Gardens of Ceylon have 
produced valuable papers by Trimen, Bamber, Petch, Green and 
others and Parkin’s paper though anticipated was a useful piece of 
work. 
The following extracts from correspondence from Sir William 
Thiselton Dyer will show to a small extent how far Singapore had 
progressed in rubber research before Mr. Parkin wrote his paper in 
1899. 
Sir William Thiselton Dyer writes in answer to the Director 
of Gardens in Dec. I, 1896. — “I am glad Para rubber is going 
ahead, I always said the Straits would be the place for it.” 
June 19, 1897. — “There is a tremendous boom in India-rubber 
planting. Most of the schemes are simply insane. Your result 
from a nine year old tree is very good.” 
Dec. 28, 1898.—“ Para rubber seems at last fairly established 
in the Native States, Derry’s report is very promising. Beauti- 
fully prepared is only a broker’s term. It means that the rubber 
is clean and free from excessive moisture. I can’t imagine why 
your Para rubber is only quoted at 3/3. I can only suppose it is 
because it was not smoked.” 
The reader is also referred to the June number of the Bulletin, 
1899 but probably by the time he has read this account he has 
