Vegetation of Southeast Asia Studies of Forest Types 1963-1965

in Thailand and Vietnam. Bat these have not been exploited on a
scale comparable to Thailand.
Rubber; Cambodia raiLks as an important producer of Pard" rubber
(Hey eg, brasiliensis), tapped from trees grown on large plantations,
which were formerly all French-owned. In an attempt to encourage
participation of Cambodians in this economic product, in recent years
the government has been promoting a small-holder rubber program
among individual farmers.
More than 90 percent of the estimated 92,TOO acres planted to
rubber trees is located in the northern and southeastern sections of
the Kompong Cham Province, where soil and climatic conditions are
especially suitable for this introduced tree. Possibilities for
increased rubber production exist aloo in the red soil areas of Dattambang
and Kratie Provinces.
Rubber production amounted to 38,000 tons in .1959, and -'.0,985
tons in 19'*). Virtually the entire output is exported, principally
in the form of smoked, crepe and latex rubber, with about 50 percent
of the annual production, during those years, shipped to the United
States.
LAOS
This landlocked country extends along the main ridge of several,
mountain chains that form the watershed of the I.ndo-Cnina Peninsula
of Southeast Asia. Its present frontiers were established in 1893
wi.en t. n e country became a r'rencb protectorate. Tne r'rench called the
country Laos (pronounced La-os). and the inhabitants were designated
a.s Lao 'Iu-o, not Laotians).
On ius western flank Laos borders Thailand for about 1,OCC
riles (1,'JOG kms.), with the Mekong river forming more tiiar, 500
miles (t'OO kms.) of the boundary. On the east it has a long border
v'ith iiorth and South Vietnam; to the north it adjoins Burma and the
Y.;nnan Province of Mainland China; and on the south is flanked oy
Cambodia. The total area of the country is approximately 91,500
square miles, roughly the size of the States of Pennsylvania aid [Jew
York combined.
Laoe is tha largest in area, but 1,1 KJ least populated, of t'ne
territories that formerly constituted Indochina. Its Ion,: axis in
about bOO miles ( f }