338 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July 



[903. 



The small yield is attributed to delay in shipment of leaves, 

 causing them to become very dry. The expenses of exploita- 

 tion during the year were 136,54641 florins [ = $54,890], includ- 

 ing administrative expenses in Holland. The Gutta-percha 

 product is reported at 79.537.40 florins [ = $31,740.] 

 RUBBER EXPORTS FROM CEYLON. 

 The official statementsof exports of crude India lubber from 

 Ceylon — all the product of cultivation, since rubber is not found 

 native on that island — show the following increase : 



In 1901 66 cwts. = 7,392 pounds. 



In 1902 189 " =21,108 



The greater part of this was rubber of the Para variety, the 

 satisfactory sales of which have been recorded in The India 

 RUBBER WORLD. Some of it, however, was the product of the 

 Ceani tree, and the prices obtained for it were correspondingly 

 satisfactory. 



The annual report of the United Planters' Association of the 

 Federated Malay States gives the following details of exports of 

 rubber, produced under cultivation during 1902 : 



From Selangor (" Para" lubber) 3200 pounds. 



From Perak ( Fit us elaslica) 2 749 



There is thus indicated a total export of 27,117 pounds of 

 rubber, the product of cultivation, from the Far East during 

 the year. 



THE YIELD OF THE PARA RUBBER TREE. 



Herk Ernst Ule, in writing of his expedition to the rubber 

 districts of the Amazon river, in the NotiMatt of the roval 

 botanical gardens of Berlin (March 15, 1903), after mentioning 

 his observations on the upper Pun'is, says: " My experiences 

 with regard to the yield in different regions agree in many 

 ways with an article in The India Rubber World (Novem- 

 ber 1, 1901 — page 46), ' Yield of the Para Rubber Tree.' The 

 number of working days, however, rarely amounts to 1S0 per 

 year ; it may rather be assumed to be 100 days on the average, 

 or from 120 to 150 days at the utmost. The high yield of Pu- 

 rvis, 16 pounds (per estrada) daily, holds good only for the 

 newly opened district on the highest reaches of the river; the 

 lower river now yields less than the Acre. In rich rubber re- 

 gions it sometimes happens that a worker collects more than 

 1000 kilograms per year (about 4 kilograms on an average per 

 tree), but generally the average per worker is between 300 and 

 400 kilograms per year." From Herr Ule's figures it may be 

 deduced that the best yield on the Purus involves the working 

 of two estradas per man (on alternate days), averaging 125 trees 

 per estrada, or 250 trees, with an average production of 85 

 pounds per tree. This amounts to 1000 kilograms for the year. 

 If he gains only 500 kilograms, the average per tree is one half 

 as much, and so on. The article in The India Rubber World 

 referred to mentioned an estate on the Purus where 10 men 

 collected in one season 20,170 pounds of rubber — equal 109150 

 kilograms, or an average of 915 kilograms per man. 



M. Paul Cibot, in the Joio -« ,'./'. / (culture Tropicale (Paris), 

 records some observations on the yield of rubber trees on the 

 rio Beni, in Bolivia, which are summarized below. The tap- 

 ping of 120 trees, on 23 days, from July 19 to August 25 [1901 ?], 

 gave the following results: 



Weight of latex 108.240 kilos =238 626 pound>. 



Weight after smoking 73. " =160.936 " 



Weight dried rubber, Sept. 2 bb. " =145.504 



[Loss in weight in coagulation and drying, 39 per cent j 



This product of dry rubber equals 23 9 grams per tree per 

 day, and estimating 180 working days per season, as Mr. Cibot 

 does, would give a yearly average yield per tree of 45 kilograms 

 [=993 poundsj. If the further shrinkage of the rubber en 

 route to Europe should result in a product 50 per cent, less in 

 weight than the original latex, the average yield per tree would 



be 3 5 kilograms [ = 7.72 pounds] per tree. But M. Cibot found 

 some actual results, based upon larger practical operations, 

 more favorable, pointing to an average yearly yield per tree of 

 3.924 kilograms [ = 8.65 poundsj of rubber received in Europe. 

 Those results apply to trees not before tapped ; M. Cibot finds 

 that the yield diminishes with each succeeding year. 

 "CASTILLOA EI.ASTICA" IN CEYLON. 

 W. E. Gii.dea, in the Tropical Agriculturist, writes of the 

 Castilloa elaslica planted on the Ambanganga estate, in the 

 Matale district, Ceylon, in November, 1900, that thirteen trees 

 measured on an average, at the age of 2 V years, 18 feet in 

 height and 8 inches in diameter. Six months earlier the aver- 

 age height of trees measured on the same estate was 12^ feet 

 and the diameter a little more than 5 inches. 



LARGE DIVIDENDS ON RUBBER TRADING. 

 The net profits for 1902 of the Socieie Anversoise pour le 

 Commerce au Congo, based principally upon trading in rubber 

 in the Congo Free State, were stated at the general meeting at 

 Brussels during the month, to have been 1,080,247 francs 

 [ = $208487.67]. A dividend of 300 francs per share was de- 

 clared, amounting to 1,020,000 francs. There are 3400 shares 

 " without designation of value," though commonly reckoned 

 at 500 francs each, one half the shares being held by the state, 

 which presumably has contributed no capital. With the shares 

 at 500 francs, the last dividend amounts to 60 per cent. In 

 one year (1S97) net profits of 3.986,832 francs were reported — 

 about 230 per cent, profits — and shares have been quoted as 

 high as 13,730 francs. 



Last month in these pages it was mentioned as probable 

 that the dividend of the Society A B I R from the trading in 

 rubber for 1902 would amount to 100 per cent. It appears that 

 the net profits were 1,472,000 francs [ = $284,096], and a dividend 

 was declared of 850 francs per share. The system of shares is 

 the same as in the company named above, which permits the 

 rate of dividend to be stated at 170 per cent. The Socie e 

 A B I R held at the end of the year $$9% tons of rubber and 

 daring the first four months of 1903 had collected 275 tons. 

 BALATA DISCOVERIES IN BRITISH GUIANA. 

 The annual report on this colony for 1901-02 to the British 

 foreign office states: " The Balata industry enjoyed fair pros- 

 perity during the year. New forests of bullet tree [Balata] have 

 been found in the upper reaches of the Berbice, Courantine, 

 and Demerara rivers, and some work has been done in them, 

 but there has not yet been time to bring their produce to mar- 

 ket." Exports of Balata from this colony have been (pounds) : 



1897-98. 1898 9g. 1S99-00. tgoo-oi. 1901-02. 



490,443 468,569 237.824 425.371 387,576 



NOTES. 



The death is reported of Sefior Don Joaquin Jiminez, of 

 Tuxtepec, Mexico, who has been mentioned in this paper sev- 

 eral times as an extensive coffee planter who had also growing 

 a considerable number of productive rubber trees. During the 

 Tuxtepec rebellion he commanded the rural force sustaining 

 the established government, since which time he has been 

 known as Colonel Jiminez. 



= The Tabasco Plantation Co. (Minneapolis, Minn.) are hav- 

 ing plins drawn for a steel frame sugar factory, to be equipped 

 with machinery for handling 1000 tons of cane per day, for their 

 plantation on the river Macuspana, in the state of Tabasco. 

 The company are planting rubber as well as sugar. 



= The Bolivian Rubber and General Enterprise, Limited, with 

 ^(50.000 capital, has been registered in London to adopt an 

 agreement with C. Chevanne, S. Chevanne, and H. Ferreccio. 

 to acquire rubber concessions in Bolivia and elsewhere. Regis- 

 tered office: 18, St. S.vithin's lane, London, E. C. 



