October i, 1906.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



19 



I.EGITIMATR COLORADO RUBBER. 



w 



HA riv\'l'!K may l>o said of Hit- Colorado rulihcr these Rocky Mountain states, enormous areas of land lying 

 plant, or tlic prodiKtion of rnhber from it in gen- waste and destined to remain waste until some crop can be 

 eral, it ap))ears to be certain that one company found that requires little cultivation, withstands all temper- 

 is not only a I'lrm believer in the possibility of ature, and requires practically no water. 



extracting rubber profitably from the Picmdcnia Jloribmida 

 iitilis but is willing to spend its own money for the object 

 and not ask the public to foot the bills. This is the P. F. U. 

 Rubber Co., of Durango, Colorado. To begin with, the com 

 panv have already extracted some rubber and the writer of 

 this article has had small samples and it is only fair to saN 

 that it looks well. Indeed, to hark back to earlier articles in 

 Till-: Indi.\ RuiiHUR Woui.n. it will be remembered that one 

 complaint that we made concerning other companies was, 

 that while they were offering stock for sale, we, at least, 

 could get no samples of the rubber that they claimed to be 



CAMT PINGUAV — RUB8ES SHRUB ARRIVING. 



producing. A description of the Durango company's plant 

 and of their wish to cultivate the plant on otherwise waste 

 lauds rather than to make use of sparselj- covered wild areas 

 of it is exceedingly interesting. K.xtracts from a letter from 

 Mr. E. C. Dunbar, the m-inager of the company, are there- 

 fore appended. 



" If you would come outhereyou would find the ' pinguay ' 

 or Colorado rubber plant, a sample of which you have in 

 your oflice, growing wild soiueivhat sparsely, on large areas 

 in this and adjacent states. Vou would see as we do that 

 any atteuipt to build up a large industry from the gathering 

 of the wild ])lant would be an impossibilitj' ; j'ou would see, 

 however, that in certain places the plant has rapidly increased 

 in the last few years, and you would note that by far the 

 most important work we have in hand is to determine the 

 conditions under which the plant may be increa.sed and fertile 

 seed produced. You would see for days as you ride through 



Vou would note that the ' pinguay ' weed is exactly such 

 a i)lant and, if a fertile reli.ible seed can be obtained, that 



FACTORY OF THE P. F. U. RUBBER CO. 



the area upon which the plant could be grown would be enor- 

 mous. I do not think I would be exaggerating at all if I 

 were to say that the waste land of the Rocky Mountain states 

 could readily be made to produce sufficient gum to supply 

 the entire American market, if this seed problem was solved. 

 As j'ou know, the last Congress gave us the use of some 

 5400 acres of this arid land, upon which to experiment. 

 This experimental farm is on the Fort Lewis mesa, 15 to 20 



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CAMP PINQUAY-MANAQER'S TENT. 



