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DEVELOPMENT OF RUBBER. 
“ The India Rubber World ” commemorates its twentieth anniver- 
sary in the number for Sept. I, 1909, and gives a little retrospect of 
the development and changes in the history of rubber industry. 
“ Twenty years ago,” says the editor,* 4 rubber planting was a joke. 
Why not cultivate coal, scoffed one critic? About as practical as the 
romances of “Jules Verne,” affirmed another. Yet to-day the rubber 
trade of the world not only believes in rubber cultivation but has 
invested millions of dollars in it very profitably.” He points out too 
the development of the rubber chemist, as an essential part of every 
satisfactory organisation. Much of the manufacturing machinery 
remains much the same as it was twenty years ago though made 
speedier and generally improved. Mr. Pearson speaks from a 
manufacturer’s point of view, but the change of cultivation during 
the past twenty years has been even more striking. 
Who, twenty years ago, ever thought of employing a mycologist, 
or a chemist or entomologist on an estate? If the matter had been 
suggested we should be met with the old parrot-cry, “We don’t want 
a scientific man, we want a practical man”. The old-fashioned 
planters of the early days looked askance when any word of scientific 
technology, to which they were then quite unaccustomed, were 
mentioned. Now such words as cambium, latex, nitrogenous plants 
and Termes are quite familiar in their mouths as household words. 
This change from the rule of thumb or empiric system to the 
scientific or knowledge system marks an era in the commencement 
of a sound system of cultivation not only of rubber but of every other 
plant of use, and this is probably the greatest and most remarkable 
feature of the rise of the rubber industry.— Ed. 
RUBBER IN DUTCH GUIANA. 
The planting of Hevea in all likely and unlikely parts of the 
world goes on apace. The Government of Dutch Guiana has com- 
menced cultivation with the modest area of 500 acres, and the 
partial failure of the cacao crop, one of the important crops of the 
country, has induced planters to turn their attention to rubber. The 
combination of banana and rubber planting should prove a success 
there, as a regular weekly service between Paramaribo and New 
York will enable the planters to get their bananas to the market 
speedily. 
The Government is providing British cooly labour under the 
indenture system, as is also the case in British Guiana. We have 
no record as to whether the seeds sent to Dutch Guiana were sup- 
plied by the British Colonies also, but this is probable as the bulk 
of the plants in British Guiana came from the Singapore Botanic 
Gardens. Looking at the map of the world, it seems odd that 
Guiana, abutting on the Brazilian fatherland of Hevea, should be 
supplied with Hevea plants from the East Indies, 
