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become a successful plantation crop for private 
enterprise. The Dutch, in Java, were the first to 
do any considerable work of this kind. 
In the Netherlands Indies. 
There seemed a good deal of danger lest the 
naturally grown supplies of gutta percha should 
become exhausted, and, rather more than forty 
years ago, a systematic investigation of the trees 
producing gutta percha and the methods of pro- 
pagating them was made by Dr. W. Burck, then 
Assistant Director of the Botanic Gardens at Buiten- 
zorg. Dr. Burck published, in 1887, an account of 
the plants producing gutta percha and experiments 
with planting were started at Tjekeumeh, near 
Buitenzorg. Later, a plantation of the better kinds 
of gutta percha trees was started, on a commercial 
scale, at Tjipetir, and this plantation has been very 
successful. It is understood that a certain amount 
of planting has been done at other places, and it is 
possible that the different gutta percha plantations 
in the Netherlands Indies may have a total area of 
as much as 10,000 acres. They are maintained for 
the production of leaf gutta and to secure a supply 
of seed for future planting. The present policy is 
to keep the plants low so that the leaves can be 
readily plucked. 
In the Malay Peninsula. 
Some fifteen years ago the Forest Department 
in the Federated Malay States began the planting of 
gutta percha in some of the forest reserve. Small 
areas had been planted in the Straits Settlements 
and in Selangor some years before. The Depart- 
mental planting has been aimed mainly at filling up 
