September i, 1903.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



409 



ing hog." It is not probable that the natives will do any re- 

 planting, since so many years would be required for a new 

 growth of this peculiar rubber; hence the more of the product 

 marketed, the sooner will the supply become extinct. 



THE dei am. s of THE new loan made by the great rubber 

 producing state of Amazonas (Brazil), given on anothei 

 are not a flattering commentary on the management of pub- 

 lic finances at Manaos. The export duties on rubber 

 which alone produce over $3 000,000 (gold) in a year, are a cer- 

 tain source of revenue of very long standing and one that grows 

 with the expansion of the trade. The public expenditure is 

 confined mainly to the city of Manaos, with a population of 

 40,000, which is the political and commercial capital of the 

 state. The support of this highly concentrated community draws 

 upon all the resources of Amazonas, a state as large as Great 

 Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands 

 combined. Yet the new state loan of $7,300,000, in 5 per cent, 

 thirty year gold bonds, to supersede all prior obligations and 

 to constitute the total public debt, had to be placed at a dis- 

 count of 1 5 per cent. Evidently the possession of the cream of 

 the trade in " Para " rubber tends neither to the development 

 of wealth among the people, nor to the prosperity of the pub- 

 lic treasury. 



A report ON rubber planting in Mexico and Central 

 America, by Mr. Cook, an expert of the United States depart- 

 ment of agriculture, in charge of investigations in tropical ag- 

 riculture, is now understood to be in the hands of the govern- 

 ment printer. We do not consider the brief summary of this 

 report which has found its way into the newspapers to be a suf- 

 ficient basis for criticism, and shall reserve fuller consideration 

 until the complete document is in hand. One sentence in the 

 newspaper summary, however, appears to be worthy of imme- 

 diate quotation, namely : 



Should the raising of rubber trees on a large scale prove a failure, the 

 number of persons affected would be very great. 



Precisely. And if the bottom should drop out of the sea, the 

 leakage would be even greater. 



A certain learned JUDGE in Milwaukee has ruled that 

 automobiles must be equipped with bells, as "the horn does 

 not make noise enough." It is to be hoped that his opinion 

 will not prevail, for, in the first place, the sound of the horn at 

 once suggests an automobile, while a bell might mean a scissors 

 grinder, an auction, or a dinner, any of which may be dodged 

 at one's leisure. Further than this, the sound of the horn 

 carries quite as far as the bell, the learned judge to the con- 

 trary notwithstanding. And then, the business end of the 

 horn is of rubber, which to some people, at least, is a sufficient 

 recommendation. 



RUBBER PROTECTION IN NIGERIA. 



THE reckless exhaustion of rubber in the British coloniesof 

 of Lagos and Gold Coast, in West Africa, suggested to the 

 authorities of Southern Nigeria, in 1900, to form a forestry de- 

 partment, the first work of which was to deal with the preser- 

 vation of the extensive rubber forests in the Benin territories. 

 Regulations were drawn up for enforcement by the forestry 

 inspector, restricting the extraction of rubber to certain seasons 

 and certain methods ; besides which the natives were in- 

 structed, through their head men, in the importance of pre- 

 serving the rubber trees. Certain forest reserves have been 



declared, in which the gathering of rubber is prohibited be- 

 tween February 15 to May 31 in each year, and its exportation 

 between March 1 and May 31, and it appears that this rule— cer- 

 tainly with regard to exportation— is capable of being enforced. 



EXHAUSTION OF "HEVEA" RUBBER.* 



BY PAUL C1BOT. 



IS the natural caoutchouc which we obtain from the Ji, 

 liable to fail some day? Such is the question which pre- 

 sents itself as a result of the every day constantly increasing 

 use of this precious substance. 



From having traveled through the various regionc, we well 

 know where the /fevea grows, and we are acquainted with the 

 great extent of the Amazonian basin ; but the Romeros (rubber 

 gatherers) are also each day penetrating further into the depths 

 of the forests which line the streams of this little known re- 

 gion, and after a few years' working they must go still further 

 in search of other virgin gomales (rubber producing trees). 



The objection may be made that the gomales of the lower 

 Amazon have been worked for the last thirty years, but we 

 reply that they are no longer large producers, and that those 

 of the Tocantins are exhausted. From our observations ex- 

 tending over a period of seven years, we know that the trees 

 may be methodically used four years in succession, but after 

 such a period they require time for recuperation. 



As a result of a methodical harvesting the gomales can be 

 periodically worked, but there is no doubt whatever that if the 

 exportation of caoutchouc from Pard during a period of thirty 

 years had been annually 25,000 tons, as in 1899, the Amazonian 

 forests would have been penetrated into much further than 

 they have to-day. 



By admitting an output of 500 kilograms of caoutchouc per 

 year as a product from an estrada comprising 150 trees, scat- 

 tered over a space of 15 hectares [=37 acres], the 25.000 tons of 

 caoutchouc exported from Paid annually, coming from the 

 Amazonian basin, will represent the product from 7500 square 

 kilometers [=about 2900 square miles] of gomales. While the 

 Amazonian basin measures fully 5,600,000 kilometers square, 

 we must not count on more than a twentieth part of this ter- 

 ritory as containing the Heveas. The latter are not found grow- 

 ing close together ; they are scattered throughout the depths of 

 the forest which borders the water courses for a distance of 

 several kilometers, besides being quite variable in frequency. 

 The remainder of the forests do not contain a single Hevta. 

 There are also immense prairies where only a hardy grass 

 grows and a few useless shrubs; and finally, there are the 

 swamps, the water courses, and the mountainous regions. 



Consequently, we can only calculate on about 280,000 square 

 kilometers [ = 108,1 18 square miles] of forest area capable of sup- 

 porting the growth of the Heveas. We must allow for a reduc- 

 tion of half of this figure for the gomales territory known at the 

 present time; consequently there remains 140,000 [ = 54,059 

 square miles] square kilometers of virginal gomales. 



It is quite certain that exhaustion is not imminent, but in 

 spite of all the uncertainty which such calculations possess, we 

 are brought face to face with the fact that in twenty years — 

 perhaps ten — all the streams of this immense Amazonian basin 

 will have been explored. By that time, the caoutchouc lianes 

 of Africa also having been exhausted, and the natural gomales 

 producing less and less, the remunerative period for the Hevea 

 plantations, which are being formed to-day, will commence. 

 The rubber supply of the future will be secured from these 

 plantations. 



* From Journal ti' Agriculture Tropicalt (Paris.) 



