Vol. IX. No. 204. 



THE AGRICULTURAL XEWS. 



55 



THE STATE OF THE BRAZIL RUBBER 

 INDUSTRY. 



The e.\ports of Uraziliau rubber fur ilie year ending 

 June 30, 1909, were almost exiictly the same .as those for the 

 year ending .June 30, li)07, and yet the value in the ])ast year 

 was about 120 per cent, of the value of the crop in 1906-7, and 

 about 187 per cent, of the value of the e.^ports in 1907-i>. The 

 entries in Brazil, as measured by those at Para, were 38,003 

 tons in 1906-7: 36,6-50 tons in 1907-8: and 38,06.5 tons in 

 1908-9. Of the shipments for the past year, 19,200 tons 

 were for Europe, and 19,0-50 tons for the United States, the 

 stock on hand therefore having been drawn upon to some 

 extent. The visible supply of Para rubber at the beginning 

 of the present season is placed at 3,132 tons, as compared 

 with 4,634 tons at the same time the y-ear before. 



The value of the rubber shipped during the past year 

 shows prices for the product which have been without 

 precedent, the range of prices in the past t\vo years being 

 greater than that shown by a similar product in the same 

 time within modern commercial history. In February 1908, 

 Rubber was (juoted at about 66 cents i)er lb. In .July 1909, 

 before the crop season closed, prices were $2" 10 per tt). 

 High prices have been charged for the rubber since last 

 November, but the prices did not go above i?lo0 per R). 

 until the last two months of the year. It seems to be 

 generally agreed that prices will remain high during the 

 current season. In the first place, it is understood that 

 certain interests have combined to maintain the price. In 

 a general way, also, with products like rubber, which at 

 present depends more or les^npon supplies from forest 

 sources, it requires about a year to readjust supplies to 

 demand, after there has been an over-supply and a reaction 

 which led to an undersupply. While there is a prospect of 

 high prices for the immediate future, and probably for the 

 current crop season, such high prices will doubtless stimulate 

 production and lead to a reaction in the other direction, 

 which is likely to bring very low prices another sea.son. 



The chief element in the situation, however, which is 

 likely not only to lead to lower price.s, but also is reasonably 

 certain to bring about regularity in su|)plies, and therefore 

 a more permanent range of prices, is the plantation rubber sup- 

 ply. The supply of rubber from ulantations in the Far East 

 during the current year is placed at 4,000 tons, by practically 

 all authorities. The actual acreage in .rubber planta- 

 tions in the East, at pre.sent, is placed at from .520,000 to 

 600,000 acres. The rubber production froai su'cli plantations, 

 as they come into bearing, is placed generally at about 1 ton 

 of rubber to 10 acres of plantation. The immediate supply 

 from this source — a supply to be fully realized in the course 

 of three or four seasons — will umjuestionably reach from 

 60,000 to 70,000 tons, or .substantially the equivalent of the 

 pre.sent world supply. 



If the demand for rubber increases at the present rate, 

 the world ought to be consuming in, say 1914, about 105,000 

 tons. What the total world production will be at that time 

 is of course problematical, but it looks as though plantations 

 would be producing more than enough to supply the world's 

 markets. This supply will be reasonably regular, will be 

 based upon a known cost price, and it is quite evident that 

 there will be no occasion for the immense variations in price 



which have characterized the rubber market for the past two 

 years, in a way not only to cause many losses to manufac- 

 turers, but also to embarass them in manufacturing for 

 a market even near at hand. 



The prol lability that plantation rubber will soon domi- 

 nate the rubber market of the world as far as cjuantity is 

 concerned, is commencing to be appreciated in Brazil, but as 

 yet, few steps have been taken to avoid possible results in 

 this line. Several of the State executive.s, in annual messages, 

 have called the attention of their rubber-producers to the 

 situation and its unfavourable possibilities, but practically no 

 action has been taken with a view to combat plantation 

 rubber on a plantation basis. It seems probable that 

 instead of rubber groves being planted in Brazil, and the 

 rubber tree being cultivated as it is grown in the Far 

 East, the only result of the plantation movement in Brazil 

 will be that new rubber forests will be opened up, and that 

 the rubber business will be managed upon a more modern 

 and less wasteful jilan. (Montkh/ Consular and Tinde 

 Ri'ports, December 1909.) 



SUGAR IN BORDEAUX MIXTURE. 



The Experiment Station Record, Vol. XXI, p. 151, 

 contains abstracts of two papers on the making of 

 Bordeaux mixture. In one of these, it is recommended 

 that the copper sulphate solution be gently poured into 

 the milk of lime, as this causes settling to take place 

 much more slowly than when the mixture is made in 

 any other way. It. is further stated that the addition 

 of sugar has a similar result, so that when stock solu- 

 tions are used, it is of distinct advantage to empio}' that 

 substance. The other paper deals with investigations 

 in which varying tjuantitics of sugar were added to the 

 mixture, in glass cylinders, the amount of precipitation 

 in the latter being afterwards measured day by day, 

 when it was found that the rate at which the sediment 

 collected was greatly lessened by the addition of sugar. 



A further development of the idea is contained in 

 an article in the Cuba Recieir for November last, 

 which is as follows: — 



' Cucasa', a soluble saccharate of copper with lime, is said 

 to be coming into use in Europe in place of Bordeaux mixture. 

 The new product yields a solution of copper that has all the 

 fungicidal properties of Bordeaux mixture, but with the 

 added advantages, it is claimed, of affording a clear solution 

 in any dilution, and of keeping comparatively long. Being 

 clear, it does not clog the nozzle of the spraying machine; 

 furthermore, much less of it need be used than of the 

 Bordeaux mixture. It is also uniformly alkaline, and there 

 can be therefore no copper sulphate present to injure the 

 foliage. 



When sprayed on the trees, the thin layer of the solution 

 is readily changed by the atmosphere, as in the case of Bor- 

 deaux mixture, into the insoluble film of .copper compound 

 that has the specific power to kill fungi. This film, owing to 

 its thinness, has the advantage of interfering all the less with 

 the important functions of the foliage, and also of sticking very 

 close — a property which w'as found in one case to last for tliree 

 months, after one spraying. Cucasa consists of molecular 

 proportions of copper sulphate, slaked lime and cane sugar, 

 thus being distinguished from other copper and sugar solu- 

 tions by the proportions in which the constituents are present 

 in order to produce a clear, alkaline, fungicidal solution. Its 

 inventor is Dr. C. Rumm, of Stuttgart, Oermany. 



