374 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1903. 



representative of the Review, that journal further states, visited 

 the offices of G. A. Moore & Co., commission merchants, No. 

 208 California street, San Francisco, whose books showed that 

 during November and December, 1902, they had received 60 

 bales of rubber from La Zacualpa Rubber Plantation Co., Tap- 

 achula, Mexico, invoiced at $6000 (Mexican). 



EXPORTS OF CULTIVATED RUBBER FROM CEYLON. 

 The official statement can now be brought down to June I 

 last, with the following result: 



In 1901 7,392 pounds. 



In iqo2 2I.I6S j| 



January I to June 1, 1903 19. -4 01 



Continued at the same rate, the exports for the current year 



should reach about 46.000 pounds. 



RUBBER PLANTING COMPANY PUBLICATIONS. 



The Isthmus Plantation Association of Mexico, Milwaukee, Wiscon- 

 sin. — Inspector's Report, 1903. 



Indianapolis Ubero Plantation Co., Indianapolis, Indiana. = Fifth 

 Annual Report [by inspector chosen by the stockhclders, 1903.] 



The Tehuantepec Rubber Culture Co., New York. = [ Annual Inspec- 

 tion Report, 1903, by Hon. James E. Southard, a member of Congress 

 from Ohio ; letter printed in fat simile, on 5 sheets ] 



The Obispo Rubber Plantation Co., New York.=Special Report of 

 Lewis A. Amsden, on the company's property " San Silverio el Obispo," 

 in Oaxaca. 



Isthmus Rubber Co. of Ubero. New York. = First Annual [Inspection] 

 Report. By Byron W, King, of Pittsburgh. 1903. 



Pan American Planters Co , Chicago=The Pan American, Vol. I, 

 No. I, February, 19(13. 



GUTTA-PERCHA IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



THE report on Gutta percha in the Philippines by Dr. Pen- 

 oyer L. Sherman, Jr.. of the Philippine forestry bureau, 

 summarized in The India Rubber World of Febru- 

 ary 1, 1902 (page 137), is supplemented by some details 

 of interest supplied by him in a later report of the bureau, for 

 the fiscal year 1901-02. He records an expedition in search of 

 G atta percha trees, with the result of confirming the belief al- 

 ready entertained that a considerable supply of gutta existed in 

 the Philippines, though as yet the most valuable species (Dich- 

 opsti gutta) has not been recognized. Dr. Sherman explored 

 portions of the large island of Mindanao and the islands and 

 towns of the Sulu archipelago, finding not only Gutta percha 

 trees, but that the Chinese bad already built up a much larger 

 trade in the product than is indicated by the customs returns. 

 So well are the natives controlled by these traders that the ex- 

 istence of Gutta percha was denied in many places where Dr. 

 Sherman afterwards found it, and the secrecy of the methods 

 employed is carried to such an extent that when the gutta 

 reaches the Singapore market its source is not known there. 

 The amount of Gutta-percha which paid an export duty to the 

 Philippine authorities during the twelve months ended June 

 30, 1902, was 373.331 pounds; of the imports at Singapore in 

 1901, only 14 000 pounds were credited to the Philippines. 



In Mindanao Dr. Sherman was surprised at the extent of 

 country over which Gutta-percha exists. The natives say that 

 all of the mountain region of southern Mindanao containsGut- 

 ta-percha. Much of the country, of course, has not been ex- 

 plored by Americans, or even by gutta collecting natives, but 

 so far as any one has gone, the trees have been found, and in 

 none of the towns visited by Dr. Sherman on the south coast 

 did he find Chinese or Moros who were not engaged in the 

 Gutta-percha business, shipping the product through Cottabato. 

 Going inland, Dr. Sherman found large Gutta-percha trees, 

 some of which were felled for him by the natives and the latex 

 extracted by the usual methods. One tree, 160 feet in height 

 and 8 feet in circumference, yielded 9% pounds of dry Gutta- 

 percha. Had the tree fallen so that it could have been " ringed'' 

 entirely around, and had precautions been taken to catch all the 

 milk which was lost on the ground, Dr. Sherman thinks there 

 would have been 20 pounds, while if all the gutta contained in 

 the bark and leaves could have been secured there would have 

 been 150 to 200 pounds. This is typical of the wastefulness of 

 the native methods in all Gutta-percha districts. In much of this 

 region the trade is control'ed by a Moro datto named Piang, 

 with the aid of a Chinese agent at Cottabato. Piang claims to 

 observe the government regulation against the felling of Gutta- 

 percha trees, but Dr. Sherman found this method practiced by 



his men, nevertheless. Similar conditions were also found on 

 some of the smaller islands visited, particularly on Tawi Tawi. 



Having made a study of the material, Dr. Sherman declares 

 that a good quality was found by him, but the customs officials, 

 not being judges of Gutta-percha, are forced to accept the val- 

 uations made by the Chinese, with the result that the exports 

 yield less than the proper amount of revenue. The natives, it 

 is asserted, are also cheated by the traders, both in regard to the 

 quality of their produce and in the weights. 



As a result of Dr. Sherman's report, the secretary of the 

 interior for the Philippines, Dr. Dean C. Worcester, in whose 

 department the forestry bureau is embraced, asserts that " at 

 the present rate of destruction there will be no Gutta-percha 

 trees standing four years hence." He is inclined, therefore, in 

 view of the evident uselessness of ordinary measures for pro- 

 tection of the trees, to recommend the establishment of a gov- 

 ernment monopoly of Gutta-percha. Exportation, except by 

 the government, could be prohibited, and such prohibition 

 could be made fairly effective. Government buyers could be 

 located at suitable points. The government could well afford 

 to pay a price considerably higher than that now prevailing for 

 the Philippine product, thereby avoiding ill feeling on the part 

 of the gatherers, and by limiting the amount which it purchased 

 could greatly retard the present rapid destruction of the trees. 

 The government buyers would necessarily come in closer con- 

 tact with the collectors, and something might eventually be 

 done in the way of introducing proper methods of extraction in 

 place of the present destructive processes. At all events, the 

 establishment of suitable extraction plants would make it pos- 

 sible to utilize the large amount of Gutta-percha which is now 

 left in the bark of trees that have been felled and ringed. By 

 the way. Dr. Worcester says that a method has been worked 

 out in the government chemical laboratory for the extraction 

 from the Philippine product of a chemically pure gutta, equal 

 in every way to the best heretofore put upon the Singapore 

 market, the purifying process involving the loss of about 50 per 

 cent, of the original mass. 



Dr. Sherman also investigated the question of rubber resour- 

 ces. No rubber was found in Mindanao, but in the Sulu 

 islands he saw an abundance of large rubber vines, or creepers, 

 from which rubber was extracted by cutting them so freely that 

 they soon died. Samples which he secured, he was told at 

 Jolo, would bring at Singapore a price equal to 32 to 40 cents, 

 gold, per pound. It appears that, during 1901 02, in addition 

 to Gutta-percha, there were exports of India-rubber from the 

 Philippines on which duties were paid, amounting to 282,996 

 pounds. 



