In the extensive plantations of Ceylon, where the growing of rubber for several years has been a commercial success, ef forts have been directed to the cultivation of the.Path 'variety. which has proven almost as successful there as in its native place. In the idalaya.Peninsula excellent cultivated rubber is now being marketed yearly in continually grow ing quantities. But notwithstanding these suc cessful efforts at 'the cultivation of rubber trees, fully half the rubber used oomes from the forests of South and Central America and guaynle plains of Mexico in 1914, and the market was still ruled by the price of the best Brazilian rubber. Cultivated rubber has rapidly come to have a very important part in supplying the maricet. In 1890 there were practically no rubber plantations in existence. In 1900 the rubber plantations were just beginning to pro duce enough rubber for experimental purposes; and three years later Ceylon exported 41.684 pounds, which had grown to almost 25,000 tons in 1916. British Malaya has also become a great rubber-producing country with over 800, 000 acres planted to rubber trees. The report of the importations into the United States show the wonderful growth of cultivated rubber. The imports had increased from about 30,000 tons in 1904 to over 86,000 tons in 1915. Of the latter more that} 50 per cent came from rub ber plantations in the Orient and Mexico. Ow ing to the fact that scientific methods are now being used in the tapping of plantation trees and the care of the rubber obtained therefrom, cultivated rubber now brings, in the open market, from 25 to 50 per cent higher prices than the best Para wild rubber. In 1916 the total world crop of rubber was about 200,000 tons or over 50,000 more than that of the pre ceding year; and this increase was due to the constantly increasing output of the rubber plantations. From 1914 to 1916 the rubber
supply from Ceylon and India increased from 15,000 to 25,000 tons; that of the Malaya Peninsula and adjoining lands from about 50,000 to over 105,000; while that of South America remained stationary. During the same period the output of the Kongo, French Kongo and Sudan rose from 3,900 to over 5,000 tons; while that of the rest of Africa decreased from 4,600 to about 2,000 tons, The inivort figures show that over 65- per cent of all the rubber marketed in 1916 came from cultivated rubber plantations. This is very suggestive. But the facts are even more in favor of the.cultivated rubber which reaches the market almost pure while the wild variety contains from 20 to 25 per cent impurities, which considerably increases the percentage of cultivated rubber marketed. At the beginning of 1917 the following was the number of acres planted to. rubber trees in the Orient: Ceylon. 230,000; Malaya (Malaya, etc.). 600,000; Borneo, 30,000; Dutch East Indies, Java, Sumatra, etc., 500,000; India and Burma, 40,000; German colonies, Samoa and West Africa, 12,000: In addition to these there are probably 50,000 acres planted in Mexico and Central America, if not more. Owing to the revolutionary condition of the country and the difficulty of obtaining labor the rubber plantations of Mexico produced little rubber for export simply because the rubber was not taken from the trees. But there are in southern Mexico some plantations containing from 5,000 to 20,000 acres, on some of which are trees from 10 to 20 years of age. Consult Akers, C. E., Rubber Industry in Brazil and the Orient' (London 1914) : Brown, H., (Rubber, its Sources, Cultivation and Preparation' (London 1914) ; Locke, R. H., (Rubber and Rubber Planting' (New York 1914).