25a 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May 



1903. 



to the purchaser ought to be patent to both. It certainly 

 is not just that the manufacturer should furnish capital for 

 a large jobber or retailer unless he have a share in his 

 profits, and the shrewd buyer should know that in the long 

 run the interest that he saves on the amount involved is 

 bound to be taken out of the goods; nor can he enjoy gen- 

 uinely friendly relations with a man from whom he de- 

 mands everything in sight. In other words, the shrewdest 

 buyer on earth cannot get something for nothing all the 

 time. 



When dating ahead first began, conditions were some- 

 what different, for manufacturers were able then to pur- 

 chase crude materials on just as long a time as the jobbers 

 of their finished product demanded. As this passed the 

 burden beyond the rubber manufacturers they were con- 

 tent, but even then it was not fair and was not good busi- 

 l.'iliy mmiifacturers of raw materials, many of 

 whom are in strong amalgamations, sell for " cash ten 

 days," instead of on four months' time, and if the jobber 

 doubts this, all he need to do is to try and buy cotton duck 

 or litharge on time. 



The remedy for dating ahead lies not in concerted ac- 

 tion, nor in a slight depreciation in the quality of goods 

 sold, but rather in each individual manufacturer taking the 

 initiative, as if he were alone in the world and doing what 

 he knows to be right and wise. If he be at all doubtful 

 about the wisdom of calling a halt he has only to study 

 the policy of some of the strongest and most successful 

 manufacturers in his own line, who have long since elimi- 

 nated dating ahead in everything they manufacture. 



BUTTER AND RUBBER— A SUGGESTION. 



'"T'HOSE persons who are inclined to think lightly — if 

 ■*■ they thinkjat all — of the possible value of intelligent 

 governmental aid to a common everyday industry might 

 find something worthy of their attention in the history of 

 the dairy interest of Denmark. That country is not adapt- 

 ed to the production of the great agricultural staples, and 

 an important product of rural industry is butter. The 

 limit of the local demand for this commodity having been 

 reached years ago, the farmers essayed the exporting of 

 their surplus, but at first without satisfactory results, for 

 the reason that the butter lacked the firmness desirable 

 for transportation over seas. The butter was good other- 

 wise, however, and a scientific study was begun with a 

 view to giving it greater firmness. This was a task beyond 

 any one dairyman, and all the dairymen in Denmark work- 

 ing in concert might not have been qualified to solve the 

 problem, which, finally, was worked out by a government 

 commission. The solution was reached by experimenting 

 with food for cows, the results being made known widely, 

 in consequence of which the product of Danish dairies 

 commands a higher price than any other butter imported 

 into Great Britain — the greatest European market for but- 

 ter We do not know how much butter is exported from 

 Denmark altogether, but Great Britain alone last year im- 

 ported 190,739,584 pounds from that country, of the invoice 

 value of 845,269,944, or 23.7 cents per pound, yielding 



about $18 per head for the whole population of Denmark, 

 the area of which is a little larger than Maryland, in the 

 United States. 



In every country where agriculture has progressed be- 

 yond a primitive state its followers owe much to the fruits 

 of scientific investigation, even though the individual 

 farmer may consider his daily practice a matter of course, 

 or something which has suggested itself naturally to his 

 ancestors. Not that all successful farming is due to the 

 work of governmental institutions. Besides the discover- 

 ies resulting from the observations of individual intelligent 

 agriculturists in every age, and communicated gradually 

 to their fellows, there have been exceptional improve- 

 ments in farming due to systematic study by exceptional 

 men in this profession. England and the rest of the world 

 owe much to the private agricultural experiment station 

 at Rothamstead, in Hertford, where Sir John Lawes and 

 Dr. Gilbert worked together for more than a half century 

 in the study of plant foods and their absorption, leading 

 to a new era of the understanding of the use of fertilizers. 

 But two other such workers in this field may not appear 

 again ; besides, quicker results are now obtained through 

 the scientific institutions maintained in the interest of agri- 

 culture in every civilized country. The United States, by 

 the way, may be mentioned as being not behindhand in 

 this field, with its sixty-two agricultural colleges, mostly 

 with a public endowment, and its fifty- eight agricultural 

 experiment stations, also supported chiefly at public ex- 

 pense, engaged in investigations planned by their conduc- 

 tors, and also offering their services to the farmers of their 

 respective districts. The liberality of the government 

 toward these institutions has not been paralleled in any 

 other country, and the high standing of American agricul- 

 ture is due in no small degree to the work that has been 

 done in them The best kinds of grain and fruits and live 

 stock have been discovered or developed, soils analyzed, 

 new processes of culture introduced, and parasites studied 

 and ways found to check their ravages. 



But why should the government confine its benefactions 

 to agriculture ? This was natural while that remained 

 our leading interest, but to-day it is largely exceeded in 

 the money value of its products by manufactures. We 

 hear, however, of no broad and general attempt on the 

 part of the government to aid manufactures by scientific 

 research. Manufacturers must still proceed empirically, 

 guided only by their own experience and by what they 

 can learn by chance of the experience of others. An ex- 

 ception is to be noted in the case of highly organized in- 

 dustries, like oil refining, where the consolidation of inter- 

 ests makes possible scientific experiments on a large scale. 

 Of how much value such experiments have proved to the 

 Standard Oil Co. most men have a vague and general 

 idea. But where competition prevails, leisure and capital 

 for such experiments in a large way are lacking. Indus 

 trial experiment stations, which would take the form of 

 laboratories, might be established for all branches of 

 manufacture that have reached a certain grade of import- 

 ance, measured by the value of their product. The ex- 

 penditure of thousands in this way might mean millions of 



