Handbook of the federated Malay states - Sabrizain.org

Federated Malay States. 77
The systematic cultivation of coconuts by Europeans has
only of recent years been taken up, and there is a growing
feeling that with the care and attention which the white man
bestows upon his estate, existing statistics will ere long be
shown to be by no means illustrative of the capabilities of
the Federated Malay States under the most favourable conditions.
There are numbers of instances of coconuts commencing
to blossom when about three years old, and of
actually bearing fruit before they are four.
Para Rubber (Hevea Braziliemis).—Several millions of
these trees have been planted in the States during the
last three years, when the growing demand for rubber, and
the success which had attended the planting of a few
specimens some ten years ago, began to attract the attention
of planters. Experimental tapping of these older trees has
proved satisfactory in the extreme ; as much as 12 J- lbs.
of rubber, worth from 3s. 6d. to 4s. per lb., has been
extracted in two years from a thirteen year old tree in the
Penang gardens, without any injury resulting, although this
particular tree is admittedly a poor specimen and growing on
wretched soil.
Gutta Ranibong {Mens Elastica).— This rubber, which is
indigenous to various parts of the Peninsula, though of
slightly less value than Para, has also been largely planted,
and a recent experiment in Perak showed that two 19 year
old trees, upon which no particular attention had ever
been bestowed, were capable of yielding 25 lbs. of dry
marketable rubber each, at a single tapping, and without by
any means exhausting the trees themselves.
So far it is to coconuts and the two varieties of rubber
that planters look to reimburse them for their heavy outlay
on coffee, but although statistics show that the world's stocks
of coffee largely exceed demand at present, there are many
who think that the largely increased sterling value of the
milrai, in Brazil, must soon bring about a reaction, when the
cycle of prosperity will again set in ; coffee is therefore being
for the most part as carefully cultivated still as it was in the
days when the enterprise was full of promise.
As a means of reducing expenditure in opening coconut
and rubber properties, planters are in many cases utilizing
the land between their young trees by putting in various
subsidiary cultivations such as bananas, the Chinese yam
(for which there is always a great demand), vegetables, &c.
The enterprise and industry of the Chinaman who is always
ready to take up anything which promises to pay, is now of
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