Jlne 1, 1907.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Z73 



with different districts, but since 1904 the law has required the 

 planting of 666 vines per hectare [=:26o vines per acre], and 

 from 800 to 1,000 trees per hectare. The oldest plants are now 

 ten years old. There is no record of any plantation rubber pro- 

 duced as yet, owing to the vines being still too young to bleed. 



TO PLANT RUBBER ON THE AMAZON. 



The Cie. Agricole et Commerciale du Bas Amazone has been 

 organized in Paris (9, rue Saint Fiacre), with the object princi- 

 pally of engaging in the culture of rubber (Ilevea) and cacao 

 on the lower Amazon, and, incidentally, to conduct a general 

 import and export trade in that region. The capital is 500,000 

 francs [:=S96,50o], in 1,000 shares of 500 francs. There are also 

 to be created 1,200 "founder's shares," of which 500 will be al- 

 lotted pro rata to the shareholders and 700 to Paul Le Cointe, a 

 French engineer of 15 years' residence in Brazil, and through 

 whose suggestion the new company has been organized, in con- 

 sideration of certain services to be rendered by him to the com- 

 pany. Mons. Le Cointe has presented to the Societe de 

 Geographic of Paris an exhaustive study on the "E.xploitation et 

 Culture du Caoutchouc en Amazonie," to be published in their 

 Bulletin, and in which he rcconmicnds the systematic produc- 

 tion of Hcvca rubber in Brazil on plantations. 



RUBBER PLANTING IN HAITI. 



E.xrERi.MEXTS which have been made for several years past in 

 rubber culture in the Republic of Haiti promise favorable re- 

 sults. There was formed in Brussels on February 26, 190 1, a 

 company by the name Les Plantations d'Haiti Societe Anonyme 

 with a capital of 300,000 francs [=$57,900], for the purpose of 

 promoting systematically vario'us forms of agriculture in Haiti. 

 .\ leading spirit in the enterprise is Fr t? Herrmann, of Brussels, 

 who is the head of an important mercantile house with colonial 



connections. Being a pioneer enterprise in its field, the work of 

 the company of necessity has been largely experimental, but it 

 has related to a considerable variety of plants, including india- 

 rubber, cacao, kola, vanilla and sugar cane. It is understood that 

 as regards rubber, the company has been most successful with the 

 Castilloa elastica, which is said to appear to be admirably suited 

 for the soil and climate there. Besides this species, plantings 

 have been made of llcvca Brasiliensis, l-'iiiitumia elastica, Ficus 

 elastica and Maiiihot Gla:ioz-ii. Native lalxjr has been employed 

 exclusively, being both cheap and fairly effective. The location 

 of the plantation is at Cap Haitien, and the manager is Mr. A. E. 

 Casse. 



THE PASK-HOLLOWAY TAPPING KNIFE. 



A RUBBER tapping tool, known as the Pask-llolloway knife, and 

 patented in Ceylon by G. W. Pask, of Kepitigalla estate, Matale, 

 is reported to have been well received by planters. It is described 

 (in the Ceyhn Observer) as a strongly made iron kr.ife with steel 

 head, one feature being that with the same knife the initial cut 

 as well as the subsequent paring operations can be made. The 

 double cutting edge permits right and left hand cutting to be 

 done, and the paring may be changed from medium to very nar- 

 row. The steel head when worn out on one side may be easily 

 reversed, and eventually a new headpiece put in. The cost is re- 

 ferred to as equal to $1.14, .American gold. 



BRIET MENTION. 



The new customs tariff established in British Xortli Borneo 

 [OfUcial Cacctte, August I, 1906] provides for an export tax on 

 india-rubber other than cultivated of 10 per cent, ad valorem. 

 Cultivated rubber is declared to be free of any export duty. 



Samples of rubber from the forests leased by Messrs. Lepper 

 and Pennington from the Natal government and shown at the 

 recent South .\frican Products Exhibition in London, are re- 

 ported to have been very fine. 



Ernest F. Van Dort, of the Technical College of Ceylon, has 

 ;ipplied for a patent for an apparatus for testing the elasticity 

 ;ind tensile strength of crud-? india-rubber — something for which 

 a prize was offered at the late Ceylon Rubber Exhibition, but 

 without being competed for. 



In September last the Milan chamber of commerce gave a 

 number of special gold medals to the exhibition authorities to be 

 awarded to the persons or bodies considered most deserving by 

 tlie different juries. Four were assigned to that of the agricul- 

 tural section, and it is announced tha'. one of the medals has been 

 awarded to Messrs. Fertile & Co., of Singapore, for their enter- 

 prise in connection with the rubber trade. This, and one ob- 

 tained by the Hon. C. A. Parsons, of turbine fame, are the only 

 two medals that have gone to the British empire, so Singapore 

 may well feel proud of its share. 



A recent shipment from Ceylon for Australia embraced 20 

 oases of He^'ca rubber stumps. 



"il.VXIHOT GL.AZIOVII ' IN H.\WAU. 



1 .iti'.ncd P1.1IUS I'hotogiaphtd at 7 to 10 months, on the estate of The 

 N;ihil:ii Rubber Co., Limited, on the island of Mauz. See TuE India 

 i\l-RnER World, August I. 1906. — page 355-] 



rK.\MK\Mi|:K 



■ .\i\v iiin?t; mk L.kbokek?-. i\' 1.1. 

 OF J.AMES C. HaR\-EV, IX Me.xico. 



