38 
RUBBER SEED SELECTION. 
By J. McNicol, 
(Manager j Kuala Pertang Estate , Kelantan.) 
rpHE Rubber Industry has now reached a stage when it belioves 
planters and others directly interested to consider the welfare 
of their plantations. 
There is no gainsaying the fact that luck has followed in the 
footsteps of rubber planting, and no great credit for its success can 
be claimed by any one in particular up to the present. Even to-day, 
you can scarcely find two planters — or would-be experts — to agree 
on the fundamental principles of the industry. The reason for this 
divergence of opinion would seem to be, that individual planters 
have not had the time, nor inclination, to make the necessary study 
of the why and wherefore ; consequently, the industry from the 
point of view of scientific cultivation is still in its infancy. 
The majority of estates are now producing, and handsome 
profits on their production are still obtainable. Therefore, the time 
seems opportune for giving a little more consideration and study 
to matters which may have an important bearing on the future 
welfare of the industry, and may ensure it being established on a 
sound business footing. 
There are many points which require elucidation, but the writer 
proposes to touch upon one only — viz., Seed Selection, which, 
in his mind, is the paramount essential, requiring our most careful 
study. The quality of the trees is best decided by direct experiment 
in the field, and having in view ways and means of procuring 
trees capable of giving the greatest latex yields combined with 
longevity, it may be of interest to record here what is taking place 
on the writer’s estate with regard to this vital problem of seed 
selection, in the hope that it may encourage others to take up 
the all important subject on a much larger scale. 
The original trees from which seeds were selected had been 
grown from seeds procured from some of the oldest estates in the 
Federated Malay States. Careful note lias been kept of the 
respective latex yields daily, over a period of not less than a year 
— and still continue — from selected trees throughout the estate, 
Notes are regularly made as to general growth and appearance, 
and during the recognized seeding season, seeds from those trees 
which have shown the best results were gathered by an European 
personally, and not left to the discretion of ordinary coolies or 
mandors, whose work is never so thorough or reliable. This matter 
of gathering by a perfectly trustworthy person is all important, 
c 
