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Charles Alma Baker's Kinta Valley Estate - Part 1
These two photographs are reproduced from the book 'Imperial Patriot', with kind permission of the author, Barrie Macdonald, show:
On the left, the fortnightly, prepared rubber sheet consignment, leaving the estate by Bullock Cart, with Alma Baker standing in the centre and the tall sheet-drying towers in the background;
and on the right, the well-equipped rubber processing factory. Unlike many rubber concerns at this time which used hand-turned rollers to press the sheets, these rollers were steam driven.
More pictures of the estate are in Part 2.
The estate founder, Charles Alma Baker, was one of the first Europeans to apply for agricultural land to plant rubber. On his way to Ceylon in 1894, he bought a copy of the book 'All About Para Rubber' and became convinced there was a future of rubber planting in Malaya. On his return he brought back 10 gunny sacks worth of Hevea Brasiliensis seeds to Malaya and applied for 10,000 acres of land, but had some difficulties with Frank Swettenham the then Resident of Perak.
Ten years later, Baker succesfully applied for a concession of agricultural land south of Batu Gajah, later known as Kinta Valley Estate.
To go to Part 2, click here.
To read about Charles Alma Baker, click here.
To read more about Bullock Carts, click here.
To read more about Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham, click here.
To read more about the book ‘Kinta Valley ’, click here.