January i, 1907.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



113 



NICARAGUA WIND AND RUBBER. 



AS was chronicled in the last issue of The India Rubber 

 WoRi.n, the gale which did so much damage about 

 Cuba and through the Caribbean sea was said to have done 

 much harm to the city of Bluelields and also to the thrifty 

 plantations that are up on the Escondido river, in Nicaragua. 

 As promptly as possible Tin-; India Rihhkk Would got its 

 special correspondent to investigate the damage done and to 

 report both by letter and photograph. 



To begin with, the story that Bluefields was practically 

 blotted out, which was taken from Nicaragua newspapers, 

 is perhaps exaggerated, as the city stands about as it was 



It destroyed most of the banana plantations and injured the 

 rubber trees appreciably. 



On the Manhattan plantation, for example, it uprooted 

 some trees, stripped most of them of their leaves, and bent 

 them over so that most of the trees now standing show a 

 slant, from a trifle over the perpendicular to 45 degrees. 

 The conservative estimate, however, gives 60 percent, of the 

 trees as being just as good as thej' were before, with the ex- 

 ception of the fact that they were obliged to pause in their 

 growth to send out new leaves. 



The illustrations accompanying our correspondent's rec- 

 ord are more than usually interesting. They show, for ex- 

 ample, a Ceari rubber tree broken ofT short, but promptly 

 recovering itself and sending out thrifty shoots that prove 

 that the tree itself was not materially injured. The other 

 picture shows Castitloas that, even while they are bent away 

 from the perpendicular, are rapidly being covered with leaves 

 and are in every way as good as if they had gone through no 

 such experience. 



The subject of high winds and their effect upon planted 

 rubber, either Castilloa or Hcvca or, indeed, Ceara, has inter- 

 ested the planters exceedingly, and this record of what really 

 happened after one of the most serious gales that the tropics 

 has known is of great value, and further than that proves 

 that the rubber trees will stand much more punishment than 

 was previously thought. 



NICARAGUA CYCLONE. 

 '[Ccarii Rubber Tree Broken off Short by the Wind and 29 Days Later Having 

 Shoots Three Feet Long Upon it. Fully Leaved Out,] 



before the great wind, and the actual damage done to build- 

 ings could easily be repaired by the expenditure of $75. The 

 harm done to rubber plantations, however, was more serious. 

 The wind came down from the northwest and is known to 

 have blown at the rate of something like 12s miles an hour. 



NICARAGUA CYCLONE. 

 [Castilloa Rubber Trees on Manhattan Plantation Entirely Stripped of Leaves, 

 and 29 Days Later Being Partially Leaved Out and Most of Them Thrifty, 

 although Bent Over by the Wind.l 



PARA RUBBER SEED OIL. 



SOME notes of interest on experiments made with oil from 

 seeds of the Para rubber tree are contributed by Mr. L. 

 Wray to the Journal of the Federated Malay States Museum. 

 He reports that, on an average, looo husked and sun dried 

 kernels were found to weigh 4;^ pounds avoirdupois. At an 

 estimated 40 per cent, of oil in the kernels, 1000 seeds should 

 yield i pound 1234 ounces of oil. By the same figures, one 

 ton of dried kernels would yield about 96^3 gallons of oil. 

 According to Mr. Wray's obser\'ations, one tree may be 

 expected to average over 1000 seeds, though some will pro- 

 duce many more. 



In order to procure the most valuable commercial oil, it 

 wSiS found necessary to put the kernels into the press imme- 

 diately after they had been dried and pounded. Any delay 

 tended to give the oil a darker and cloudj' appearance. The 

 longer it was kept the deeper became its color. Some of the 

 oil last expressed was quite thick. As it became viscid it 

 was more difficult to express and required greater pressure 

 to expel it from the cake. As these experiments were car- 

 ried on with a locally made press without sufficient pressure 

 to expel all the oil from the meal, it was found impossible 

 to determine the comparative yield of the fresh and the old 

 meal, but there appeared to be a much greater yield from the 

 former. 



There are on exhibition at the Perak museum three sam- 

 ples of these oils. One is from freshly crushed seeds, one 

 from seeds which had been crushed for about a week, anc" 

 the third from seeds crushed about two weeks. 



RuHBER footwear was imported into Bulgaria in a recent 

 3-ear to the value of 740,829 francs (=$142,980), Russia con- 

 tributing 440,425 francs worth and Austria-Hungary the 

 principal part of the remainder. 



