417 
In 10 years (1919) presuming that 25,000 acres are 
planted annually during the next five years (a very reason- 
able estimate, considering that over 4-0,000 acres were 
planted during the year in both 1907 and 1908), the rubbei 
trees of the Federated Malay States should yield not less 
than 50,000 tons of drv rubber, which at 3.s. per lb. re- 
present a value of $144,000,000. This amount, should the 
demand for rubber increase at the rate it has been annually 
rising for the last nine years, will probably at that time be 
less than 25 per cent, of the world’s consumption. 
It is ?0 N ears since the discovery of vulcanisation by 
Goodyear made rubber available for economic purposes. 
It is now a necessary of civilised life, and it is only by 
means of rubber that we can solve the difficult problems of 
transport and communication. •Without it electric yjrire in- 
sulation for telegraphy and lighting, pneumatic and cushion 
tyres, and the air brakes of railways would all be imprac- 
ticable; and in the purposes for which it is used in medicine 
and surgery it is an absolute essential. The optimistic view 
that the demand will before long exceed the supply is not 
more unlikely than the more usual view of the pessimist 
that the continued planting of rubber will result in a supply 
larger than the demand and consequently a considerable 
drop in prices. _ . , . . 
That the market will be overstocked with rubber is 
still a haunting fear of the owner of rubber property, but 
as each year brings new uses for rubber, and increases the 
amount used in directions where its value is already known, 
the possibility of over-production seems less probable. 
Many expert authorities expect that developments in 
the direction of rubber street-paving, covering for decks of 
ships, etc., may be looked tor in the near future, borne two 
or three years ago, when I was looking into the question of 
rubber pavement, I estimated that two inch-thick mbbei of 
the quality which the London and North Western Bailway 
had so successsfullv used in the rubber pavement at the 
entrance of Euston’ Station if used for paving the streets 
of London, which are at present laid with wood or asphalt, 
would require about 90,000 tons of crude rubber. 
If the prophecies so frequently made by experts as to 
the increase in the use of motor cars are fulfilled, we have 
another large and increasing demand for rubber of good 
qualitv, and wherever the future possibilities of expansion 
in the rubber market is studied it is found to be more than 
hopeful. The purposes for which rubber can and will be 
used economically. are unlimited, and we may look forward 
