S2PTfiMDEi« t, 18%,] fHE fROFICAL AGi\ICt/Ll'(/RIST, 



^07 



in July 1882, bent his energies to organize a gigantic 

 syndicate to control the rubber market of the world. 

 At that time the ruling price of Pari rubber was from 

 00 to 95 cents per [lound, to which price it had been 

 elevated by purely natural causes. Backed with heavy 

 capital, he set to work buyiug the new crop as fast as 

 it arrived at the exporting markets of Brazil. For 

 mouths he seemed to be completely successful. The 

 price of rubber went up, up, up. Manufacturers were 

 astonished at the audacity of one man attempting to 

 monopolize the market, and at first abstained from , 

 purchasing at the extreme price he named. But after- j 

 wards, being forced to purchase against contracts that 

 they had already entered into for manufactured goods 

 they excepted his terms, and sparingly, it is true, bought 

 to protect those goods. Fortunatenly for the manu- 

 facturers, the early part of the season of 1882, had 

 produced about 40 per cent, more manufactured goods 

 than usual, and as the end of the season drew near it was 

 seen that the supply of goods was far in excess of the 

 demand. The price of the raw material had been forced 

 by the Baron to a dangerous height, and for manufact- 

 urers to continue business meant for them to accumulate 

 goods which had an unprecedented cost, and they could 

 see no market in which to dispose of them. Therefore, 

 they felt obliged to protect themselves, and many of 

 them agreed at meetings held about the middle of Oct- 

 ober 1882, to close their factories until the trade should 

 warrant their paying the extreme prices which the Baron 

 demanded. Baffled by this unexpected flank movement, 

 the Baroii attempted to unload his enormous stock, but 

 without success. Again finding himself blocked, and that 

 the rubber which his friends had on hand was costing 

 him by shrinkage in weight and interest from tiii.iJOO 

 dols. to 70,000 dols. per month to carry the bold specul- 

 ator submitted to the inevitable, and the mauufaoturers 

 soon had good reason to congratulate themselves on the 

 success of their combination. — Indiuruhher and Guttapercha 

 Journal. 



THE INDIARUBBER SUPPLY. 



"We have referred, in previous numbers of this Journal' 

 to the important subject of the Indiarubber supply, 

 both in connection with the wasteful methods of con- 

 sumption adopted in Brazil and elsewhere, and with 

 reference to the efforts now being made to extend the 

 cultivation of rubber-bearing plants. That our ' cute 

 American cousins are alive to this question is shown by 

 the following paragraphs extracted from one of their 

 merrtintile journals. 



The increase in the consumption of Indiarubber in 

 this country (says the Boston Commercial Bulletin) has 

 been very large within the past ten years, and more 

 particularly within the latter half of the decade. This 

 is owing both to the great increase in the consumption 

 of rubber boots, shoes, and clothing, consequent upon 

 the increase in population, and to the multitude of new 

 uses to which rubber has been put, to the almost total 

 exclusion of the horn. Our imports of Indiarubber are 

 classed together with guttapercha, both being on the 

 free list, and being, to some extent, similar articles. 

 They amounted to 21,6-46,320 lb. in the fiscal year euded 

 June aO, 1883, and valued at 15,611,000 dols. By far the 

 larger portion was Indiarubber. Our imports from Brazil 

 alone footed up 8,600,000 dols. in 1883, while we imported 

 from Central America, United Stntes of Columbia 

 and other South American countries, to the value of 

 about 3,liO<V"^ dols., and African Indiarubber, Imported 

 for the most part, iri Kngland, foots up about 2,000,000 

 dols. The great bulk of our supply, however, and 

 the best rubber also, comes from Brazil, where its 

 collection and preparation iu the crude state for shipment 

 forms the principal resource of the two great provinces 

 of the .-Vmazon A'alley : Pani and Amazon. Xext to cotfee 

 and segar, rubber occupies third plane in Brazilian 

 ex-ports. Notwithstanding this, hardly any thought is 

 given to the future of this great industry in Brazil. 

 The same wasteful and exhaustive system of collecting 

 the rubbir which has been in vogue for lialf-a-century 

 is followed today. The industry' is chiefly iu the bauds , 

 of an uneducated and half-civilized nomad population ;o< J 



Indian mixture, and is pursued iu a crude way, with no 

 thought beyond immediate profit. In consequence, mil- 

 lions of rubber trees have been destroyed, and many 

 others abandoned from premature and cxcessi\'c use. 

 The waste iu this way is so great that many well in- 

 formed Brazilians fear that, unless better methods are 

 employed, this rich resource will, before many years, 

 suft'er a serious and perhaps fatal decline. In the few 

 cases where care is exercised in not tapping trees in the 

 months of August and September, when they change 

 their leaves, groves have jielded continuously for thirty 

 years, and are still in good condition. The rubber tree 

 requires a growth of from twenty-five years before it 

 produces the milky .sap which forms the rubber. Hence 

 little or nothing has been done to propagate tlie trees, 

 and everything about the business is carried on as if 

 the supply of trees would never give out. Brazil imposes 

 a very heavy export-tax on rubber, amounting, state 

 and provincial, to 22 per cent from the province of Par;l 

 and 21 per cent from the province of Amazou. — Imlia- 

 rtibber and Guttapercha Journal. 



A BOTANICAL PROBLEM. 



(To the Editor of the fharmacential Journal.) 

 Sir, — Witnessing the felling of some trees the other diiy 

 I was surprised to find in the centre of the duramen 

 about 3 feet from the ground, of a common elm ( Ulmus 

 cavtpestri.s), a cavity containing about 4 ounces of a reddish, 

 coloured substance. Now, as the aperture could not have 

 been formed mechanically, I was curious to learn what 

 the component parts of the peculiar earthy matter weri'. 

 I found ujjon analysis that it was composed of about 80 

 per cent of iron as an oxide, with lime, silica, potash 

 and soda, and some organic matter. As this would appear 

 to me to be an extraordinary amomit of iron to have 

 ascended in the sap to the point stated, and by its 

 accumulation filling the niche in the trmik, I shall be 

 glad to hear if any of your readers and brother-chemists 

 have witnessed a similar curious phenomenon. — A. Ball, 

 AValton Place, East Molesey Surrey. 



Gathering Caoutchouc in Equatorial Abieeica. — 

 The tapping of the trees they had discovered was 

 being actively carried on. The adventurers, clad in rag- 

 ged pantaloons, the body naked, were behaving like 

 demons, under the supervision of their chief, round the 

 gigantic Figs (FirunJ. whose bark they were tearing off 

 by slashing it off with their hatchets. The operation 

 reminded me of the process of gathering resin in the 

 Lanes of Gascony. But here, instead of zinc cups to 

 receive the resinous juice, the cauchiros placed Helicoiiia 

 leaves, on which the precious latex flowed, white as milk. 

 The liquid was collected aud poured into calabashes 

 (totumas), where it soou coagulated and formed caou- 

 tchouc, ready to be packed and exported. — Ed. Andhe 

 in Le Tour da Monde. 



Banana Culture in Honduras.— Honduras is rapidly 

 assuming importance among the larger countries iu 

 Central America. According to the Commercial Advertiser, 

 it has increased 50 per cent in population iu the last 

 ten years. The lands outside of the main towns are 

 being bought from the Government by citizens of the 

 United States and by Germans. The object of these 

 new settlers is to establish Banana plantations. The soil 

 of Central America is peculiarly adapted to the growth of 

 this fruit, which can be raised at what would seem to 

 be a ridiculou.s expense. The market for Biinanas Iu 

 New York is good, and the .sale of them pays a profit of 

 about 20 per cent. The purchiise of tlie.se I nuls has 

 netted the Governnnnt about l,5i:O,0U0 dollars duringthe last 

 year, and as it owns about 1,000,000 acres, there is a 

 fair prospect of its enriching itself within the ensuing 

 five years. — Gardeners' Chronicle, 



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