148 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February i, 1907. 



In parts of Panama the trees are butchered in the tapping and 

 still are thrifty. In Guatemala the natives who have small planta- 

 tions of their own often cut steps to the upper reaches of the tree 

 with the machete and the tree never rots, nor is it attacked by 

 insects. 



On the Mexican plantations, however, it is almost the universal 

 belief of the planters that almost any tapping by the machete is 

 damaging. The illustration shows a tree on one of the best of the 

 Mexican plantations which was tapped carefully by ii skillful 

 machete artist, but in spite of all care insects got into the cuts 

 and injured the tree and not only that, the bark, instead of draw- 

 ing together and healing,, spread apart, leaving the bare wood 

 exposed. 



FEDEHATED MALAY STATES. 



Reg.\ri>ing the Lanadron estate, in the Federated Malay States, 

 the exhibit from which took the highest award at the Ceylon 

 rubber exhibition, a London newspaper says : "Two sons of Mr. 

 Andrew Pears, of the great soap-making firm, are part owners, 

 and Mr. Frank Pears is the manager. This firm may perhaps be 

 considered as the pioneers of the rubber industry in the Malay 

 peninsula. Besides Lanadron, Mr. F. Pears is superintending the 

 planting of another large estate. When he first went to Lanadron 

 he had to go 250 miles up river in a common boat. The clifnate 

 is not so hot as that of Calcutta, but its great humidity has to be 

 fought again.st. It was formerly all jungle where these planta- 

 tions now are." 



The report of the first year's working of the Federated l^Ial.iy 

 States Rubber Co., Limited— the company owned at Antwerp- 

 shows 1.1,322 pounds of rubber to have been gathered from 10.453 

 trees on their West Country estate, in Selangor. Durin..; the first 

 six months of the secorid year, it is stated, 16.300 pounds were 

 obtained from the same trees. The majority of the trees are said 

 to have been less than 7 years old at the beginning of the work. 

 These figures are so large that the suggestion has been made by 

 some planters that the trees referred to must have been over- 

 tapped. 



The Tampoy Rubber Co., Limited, has been incorporated at 

 Singapore, with a capital of 3SO.000 British dollars, to purchase a 

 rubber property in the Malay States, the vendors accepting $100.- 

 000 in shares in part payment. 



The success of the recent Ceylon rubber exhibition has given 

 rise already to the discussion of plans for another show of the 

 same kind, and some of the Far Eastern newspapers consider it 

 as practically settled that one will be held within the next three 

 years, most probably in the Malay States. 



Some leading firms of Colombo (Ceylon") are establishing 

 branch houses in the Federated Malay States, and better shipping 

 facilities to the latter region are in prospect, on account mainly 

 of the growing importance of the rubber planting interest there. 



The Vallambrosa Rubber Co.. Limited, operating a plantation 

 in Selangor. pay an interim dividend for their second year at the 

 rate of 30 per cent per annum. 



A PLANTATION IK GUATEMALA. 



The Compagnie Franco-Beige du Guatemala has been formed 

 at Brussels with a share capital of 2.000,000 francs [=$386,000] 

 to acquire and work estates in Guatemala and cultivate india- 

 rubber. One-half of the share capital of the new company has 

 been sub.scribed by a Paris financial group, while the remainder 

 has been taken up by the Compagnie Beige de f.-Vmeriquc Cen- 

 trale. which has increased its share capital by 1.000,000 francs for 

 this purpose. 



CULTIVATED RtTBBER FROM AFRICA. 



The 1ndi.\ Rlbbfr World is in receipt of samples of cultivated 

 Ceara rubber from four year old trees on a small plantation 

 known as Senigalla Farm, Fort Jameson. Northeastern Rhodesia. 

 The rubber was air dried and worth at the present market 90 to 

 g-i cents. 



PLANTING IN SAMOA. 



The Tiavi-Kautschukpflanzungen aus Samoa, with a capital of 

 1,000,000 marks [=$238,000], has been formed in Berlin. The pur- 

 pose is to plant to rubber 3600 acres on the south side of Upolu, 

 one of the Samoan islands. 



Three Hcvca rubber trees on the plantation of T. .Andrew, near 

 .Apia, Samoa, aged 6 years 3 months from the seed, were tapped 

 four times, between March 10 and .April 10, 1906, and yielded a 

 total of 9 ounces of dry rubber. The trees measured in girdle 

 24^ inches, 23 inches, and 2i'/2 inches. Of the total yield, .37 per 

 cent was obtained from the smallest tree, on which alone the 

 spiral tapping system was used. 



PLANTATION RUBBER FROM MEXICO. 



The illustration herewith is from a photograph of the first 

 consignment of plantation rubber from the estate of The Oaxaca 

 Association, of Chicago, at Buena Ventura, State of Vera Cruz, 



Pl.\xt.\tio.\ Rubber from Mexico. 



Mexico. The weight is 285 pounds. The rubber was obtained 

 from cultivated Casti'loa clastica trees. 7 to 9 years old, the 

 average yield, from one tapping, being 2 ounces. The company 

 will have 400,000 rubber trees 7 years old by 1909. 



GRADES OF PONTIANAK. 



A FIRM in New York offeruig quotations on different grades 

 ■'^ of pontianak (gutta-jelutong), and being asked for a de- 

 scription of the difference, advises The India Rubber World: 

 "There are several grades of pontianak, but the two most com- 

 monly used are the regular pontianak and the plantation, which is 

 often called an old fashioned quality. It comes in large loaves 

 and is generally very uniform' in quality. The price is about one 

 half cent higher than regular fair average quality." 



On the same date there comes to hand a copy of the Singapore 

 Agricultural Bulletin, in which appears this note by the editor, 

 Mr. Henry N. Ridley: "Jelutong comes now largely from Suma- 

 tra, as well as Borneo. Mr. Gustav Fischer, of Palembang, tells 

 ine the Sumatra jelutong is preferred by dealers now. He has 

 been tapping trees after the style used in Para rubber trees, and is 

 obtaining improved samples. The tree is abundant in the [Malay] 

 peninsula, but seems here to be quite neglected." 



.\MERIC.\N IMPORTS OF POXTI.^N.-\K (iN POUNDS). 



1903 10,994,437 1905 25,369.473 



1904 14,867,007 1906 (11 months) . . . 13.977,832 



