PLANTATION LIFE
The moist but very hot climate which rubber trees require is found
only in a zone around the world between the parallels of latitude
thirty degrees north to thirty degrees south of the equator.
Within this zone there have been found more than 350 rubber
bearing trees, shrubs and vines. For this reason this zone is
called the Rubber Belt. As most of the rubber used commercially is
gathered from trees growing within a zone extending from ten
degrees north to ten degrees south of the equator, this latter
zone is sometimes called the Inner Rubber Belt.
If you will trace this belt on a map of the world you will see
that it includes the Amazon region which produces more than
three-quarters of the wild rubber used in manufacturing. Most of South
America's wild rubber is obtained from Brazil, the remainder from
Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela. Now continue the belt across the
Atlantic Ocean to Africa, where you will strike the Belgian Congo
which produces a small quantity of wild rubber. Partly owing to
the careless manner of gathering and partly to the fact that it is
not originally of as good quality as Brazilian rubber, Congo
rubber is not as valuable for manufacturing as Brazilian. Then
complete the circle by following the belt across the Indian Ocean
to Ceylon and the East Indies which contain the great rubber
plantations where most of the rubber used to-day comes from.
To establish a rubber plantation requires very careful planning.
The choice of a site is of first importance, for the planter must
find a locality having a moist climate with an evenly distributed
rain-fall where the temperature throughout the year does not fall
below seventy degrees Fahrenheit, and where there is protection
from the wind. There must also be, of course, access to a steady
labor supply and a convenient shipping port. As the proper climate
is a tropical one, there is usually dense jungle to be cleared
away. Immense trees and thick bushes, rank straggling weeds and
vines form an almost impenetrable jungle. To turn such a place
into a garden spot means a genuine battle against jungle
conditions. But gradually trees, shrubs and undergrowth are torn
out and burned, laying bare the rich soil ready for the plow of
the planter.
Meantime the rubber seedlings have been sprouted in nurseries.
When the ground is ready they are carefully taken up and
transplanted to the holes which have been made for them in the
field where they are to be permanently planted.
Though the growth of the trees is very rapid, sometimes as much as
twenty feet in the first year, there are five years of anxious
waiting and guarding against winds and disease before they are
ready to be tapped and so begin to reward the planters. At first
the yield of a tree is only about one-half pound of rubber a year,
and this increases so slowly that it is many years before it
amounts to as much as ten pounds a year. The highest yield ever
recorded was given by one of the original trees set out in the
gardens at Heneratgoda, which gave ninety-six and one-half pounds
in one year.
How different is life on the rubber plantations of to-day from the
life of the gatherer of wild rubber in the jungle. In Brazil, the
solitary workers have to plunge at dawn into the perilous forest,
with its lurking wildcats and jaguars, its coiled and creeping
serpents. The dwellings are flimsy huts, food is scarce and
expensive, and disease and fever cause many deaths.
On the other hand, workers on a well-managed plantation live in
comfortable houses in healthy surroundings and are supplied with
plenty of good food. In fact the conditions are so much better
than generally prevail among natives in the Orient that work on a
plantation is considered more desirable than most other forms of
labor. The unmarried men live in barracks, but the men with
families have individual houses with garden plots adjoining. Big
kitchens prepare and cook the food in the best native style.
Schools for the children, recreation centers for old and young,
and hospitals to care for the sick, are all parts of the
plantation organization.
In erecting hospitals and caring for the health of its plantation
workers, as in other branches of the rubber industry, America has
taken the lead. So well is this recognized, that the Dutch
Government has awarded a medal to the United States Rubber Company
for the efficiency and completeness of its plantation hospital,
which happens to be the largest private hospital in the East
Indies, having accommodations for nearly a thousand patients.