Vol. ' V. ■ No. 105. 



THE AGRieULTUKAL NEWS. 



137 



The Cotton Industry. 



The Journal of the Society of Arts for March 23, 

 1906, in reviewing the cotton industry in England, 

 mentions the remarkable increase in spinning and 

 other cotton factories. ' During the first ten weeks of 

 the present year six new concerns were registered with 

 a capital of nearly half a million, representing 500,000 

 spindles, and this activity may be expected to continue 

 whilst trade remains anything like as good as it is at 

 present.' 



The increase in exports is enormous, amounting in 

 1906 to 20 per cent, in excess of the total for 1905. 



Cotton planters cannot fail to recognize these facts 

 as encouraging, for increased exports, and the manu- 

 facture of cotton goods must create a demand for raw 

 cotton, and an active demand always means quick sales 

 and good prices. 



Rubber Consumption and Natural Rubber. 



The Journal of tlie Society of Arts for March 23, 

 1906, discussing the rubber trade and rubber supplies 

 points out that the question has arisen as to whether 

 the supply of rubber is likely to exceed the demand, 

 and the opinion is expressed that the indications are 

 that the demand is likely to be greater than the 

 supplv for some lime to come, although the sources of 

 natural rubber supply will eventually be exhausted. 



After comparing the world's consumption of 60,000 

 tons in 1903 with the 65,000 tons in 1905, the Journal 

 states that the production of rubber in British Colonies 

 has fallen off: 'In 1S96 it was 111,225 cwt. ; in 1904 it 

 had fallen to 40,673 cwt., this decrease being due, no 

 doubt, to the reckless way in which the wild rubber 

 trees have been treated, as, for example, in Lagos, 

 where in three or four years the rubber industry was 

 practically destroyed by reckless tapping. There is 

 no reason to suppose that in other parts of the 

 world, outside the British dominons, where there 

 is, and can be, no sufficient supervision, there has 

 not been similar waste of the natural product. 

 If this be so, it is not unreasonable to assume 

 that the natural sources of rubber supply are being 

 seriously affected, and must before very long dis- 

 appear. The natural rubber trees and plants are 

 scattered over such an enormous area that it is 

 impossible to insure proper treatment of them, 

 and in the absence of such treatment, they cannot 

 survive. It is said that there are vast untapped 

 supplies of wild rubber in Soutii America. It maj' be 

 so, but it is certain that the supply from African 

 sources is steadily decreasing, and whilst until now the 

 imports of rubber from other centres, notably Brazil, 

 Uruguay, and Peru, have more than compensated for 

 the failure of the African exports, and collections from 

 new ground may for a time more than make up for 

 exhaustion elsewhere, year by year this new ground 

 will be more difficult to find, and the conclusion seems 

 unavoiciable that before many years have passed the 

 supply of natural rubber will diminish, without the 

 hope of recovery.' 



Some Bermuda Plants. 



In a pamphlet ^^citled A List of Plants collected 

 in Bermiulfi, in 190o[ Mr. Albert Hanford Moore gives 

 an account' of a considerable number of plants which 

 he collected in Bermudivin July and August 1905. In 

 the introductory note, Mr. Moore mentions that 'the 

 peculiar interest presented by the flora of the islands 

 composing this colony lies in the fact that there is but 

 a comparatively limited number of endemic species, 

 and that the flora is consequently made up almost 

 entirely of plants derived from elsewhere, either by the 

 agency of man or without it : mainly from the West 

 Indies, but also from North and South America, and 

 even from Asia and Africa.' 



The list deals with some 221 species, two of which 

 are described as new, and several which were not 

 previously recorded from Bermuda. 



The two new species are Rltynclt.osporch donvmu,- 

 censis, a sedge of the family Cyperaceae, and Elaeo- 

 dendron Laneanum of the family Celastraceae. 



The determinations of the plants given in this 

 list have, for the most part, been made by comparison 

 with specimens in the Gray Herbarium of Harvard 

 University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

 ^ 1-^— 



Plantation Rubber. 



In continuation of its discussion of rubber and 

 rubber supplies the Journal of the Society of Arts 

 goes on to say that it has been stated that to yield 

 permanently a ton of rubber per year requires not less 

 than 10 acres of plantation. 



That is a rather wide generalization. Soil and 

 climate have much to do with the yield of rubber as 

 with other products, and they vary widely. But even 

 assuming that a rubber plantation of 1,000 acres can 

 only be safely relied upon for 100 tons of rubber, 

 650,000 acres would meet the whole of the present 

 demand for rubber. Of course that would represent 

 a very big area of plantation, and for many years to 

 come natural rubber must form a large portion of the 

 world's supply : but rubber planting is now being 

 carried on on a very extensive scale, and ten years 

 hence, when the natural supply may be visibly shrink- 

 ing, the plantation supply will have very largely 

 increased. It has to be remembered, too, that the loss 

 from natural rubber is from 10 to 15 per cent, in 

 manufacture ; whereas that from the ' biscuit ' rubber, 

 prepared from cultivated rubber, is generallj- less than 

 1 per cent. 'It would seem probable that for some 

 years to come there will be no visible diminution 

 of the supply of natural rubber; there may even be 

 some increase from the opening ujd of new areas, 

 and the increase in the receipts of plantation rubber 

 will anyway, after the next year or two, meet, or 

 nearly meet, the increased market demand, whilst 

 ultimately it will bring prices down. For the cultiva- 

 tion of rubber is not like that of cotton, attended with 

 many difficulties ; it is an easy and cheap cultivation, 

 and the area of the earth's surface upon which it thrives 

 is practically boundless. Nor must it be forgotten that 

 there is always the possibility, .some say the likelihood, 

 of an efficient substitute for rubber being discovered.' 



