November i, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



49 



temperature has been reached, the pan is li.led with latex (rom 

 the feeder and the small roller is turned by hand or power. The 

 surface of the small roller, being in contact with the surface of 

 the large drum, turns it and at the same time spreads a thin 

 film of latex on its surface. The action of the heat and fumes 

 on the thin film of latex coagulates and dries it. Continuing 

 the process, the latex is spread film by film, coagulated and dried, 

 until a thick deposit of rubber surrounds the large drum. A 

 damper between the furnace and the smoke box is shut and a 

 door in the smoke box opened. The rubber on the drum is slit 

 across with a knife and unrolled in a long sheet which can be 

 cut to any size for packing. The antiseptic qualities of the 

 fumes, it is claimed, tend to preserve the rubber. — The Times 

 of Ceylon, Aui^ust 2. 



RUBBER PRODUCTION IN THE ACRE. 



The journal C /"«»>, of Rio de Janeiro, summarizes the re- 

 port of the prefect of the department of the Upper Jurua, one 

 of the three divisions of the new Federal territory, covering the 

 first six months of his administration, and submitted to the 

 Brazilian minister of the interior. The population of the de- 

 partment IS estimated at 5974. The nn^vih^xoi seringaes (rubber 

 producing camps) is 112. The exports of rubber from this de- 

 partment from October, 1904, to March, 1905, inclusive, amount- 

 ed to 3313372 kilograms, valued at 23.193.604 milreis, the 

 average price of rubber being 7 milreis, while the expense of 

 administration of the department did not exceed 600.000 

 milreis. The valuation given, with exchange estimated to 

 average 13 pence during the six months, equalled $6,11 1,998.53_ 

 gold. The report is accompanied by tables and a map, with a 

 valuable resume ol information regarding the department. 

 These figures of yield indicate a very rich rubber field. Over 

 1200 pounds produced for every inhabitant, and in less than a 

 full working season would be impossible in the older rubber 

 districts of the Amazon. Besides, it must be understood that 

 the whole population is not capable of working rubber. It 

 would appear that an average of a ton for each rubber worker 

 must have resulted — a wonderful result when it is realized that 

 a single rubber tree yields at each tapping only a lew spoon- 

 fuls of latex, nearly half of which evaporates in the " smoking." 



RUBBER PLANTING IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL. 

 The Rio journal O Cafesista for August contained a report 

 on the successful growing of manigoba rubber {Manthot Glazio- 

 vit) on \.\\e. fazenda "Bella Allianra," vargem Alegre, state of Rio 

 de Janeiro, owned by Senhor Mauricio Haritifl, oneof theleading 

 agriculturists of the state, who, in view of the lessened profits 

 from coffee culture, planted manii;oba rubber instead, and has 

 already extracted a product which has been most favorably re- 

 ceived in Europe. O Oifesista mentions that the secretary of 

 agriculture of the state of SHo Paulo commissioned three lead- 

 ing planters of that state to visit " Bella .'Mlianra," to study the 

 excellent results obtained there from planting rubber. Mention 

 is made of plantation mani(;oba rubber sold recently in London 

 at 100 milreis per 1 5 kilograms, which at the recent high rate of 

 exchange equalled $1.19,^ per pound. 



PLANTATIONS AND PLANTERS. 

 MONERAKELLE Rubber Estates, Limited, registered in Lon- 

 don, September 8, 1905, with /25.000 capital [ = $121,662.50] to 

 acquire the Monerakelle and three other estates in the Mon- 

 eragala district of Ceylon and to carry on there and elsewhere 

 the business of rubber and general planters and merchants. 

 One of the directors is A. Bethune, director of the Federated 

 (Selangor) Rubber Co., Limited. Registered office: 12, Fen- 

 church street, E. C, London. The four estates embrace 1044 

 acres, of which 22 are now planted in rubber and 353 in cacao. 



=Sembilan Estates Co., Limited, registered in London Sep- 

 tember 8, 1905, with /jo.ooo capital [=$243,325] to acquire 

 property and cultivate rubber and other products. No public 

 issue. Directors: H. Gilliat, A. E. Gilliat, and T. E. Hurst- 

 Hodgson, merchants of England. Registered office: 4, Crosby 

 square, E. C. London. 



= Mr. J. B. Carruthers, director of agriculture of the Feder- 

 ated Malay States, in order that planters who were unable to 

 visit the Agri-Horticultural show at Penang might see the 

 fine display of rubber made there, arranged with the owners to 

 have an exhibition of the prize winning samples for one day at 

 his office in Kuala Lumpur. Mr. G. D. Russell also gave an ex- 

 hibition of a new rubber coagulating machine tor which he has 

 applied for a patent. 



= The Malay Mail hears that two Ceylon planters, Messrs. 

 Greig and Volum, will apply for 1000 acres of land for rubber 

 planting in the Kuala Selangor district, Federated Malay States. 



= The seventh annual report of Klanang Produce Co., Lim- 

 ited, shows an acreage of 144 acres in Pard rubber and 80 

 Rambong {Ficiis elas/ica) at the beginning of the year; 96^ 

 acres planted with rubber and cofTee during the year, and 360 

 acres cleared for rubber. Application has been made for about 

 300 acres additional of government land. The company derive 

 a satisfactory rate of income from cocoanuts and cofTee, and 

 large profits are confidently expected from rubber. The whole 

 of the company's share capital of ,£20.000 has been issued. 

 The £t shares have been quoted recently in London at £3 5^. 



AMAZON "PARA" RUBBER AND ITS CONTENTS. 



[fRO.M the " CEYLON OHSERVEK," AUGUST 28.] 



BEING of the first importance to British rubber planters in 

 the East we quote elsewhere the article written by Mr. 

 Ayme, the American consul, on the custom of blending Sapium 

 aucttparium with the true " Pard " or Hevea Brasiliensis, and 

 the information about the former tree. The discovery that this 

 has been done for some time is due to investigations by two 

 foreigners. Professor Henri Jumelle and Dr. Jacques Huber. 



The India Rubber World finds in it a most important ar- 

 gument for rubber cultivation ; " for who could imagine, if the 

 Amazonian product had come from cultivated trees, that the 

 planters could for years have been blending the latex of two 

 different sorts " in no fixed proportion, and " neither the man- 

 ufacturer nor the student of the subject, be a particle the wiser." 

 This is decidedly true in that cultivated Pard is bound to give 

 better results than wild, as it has been known hitherto ; but as 

 South American Pard rubber, used hitherto as a standard of 

 unit value, has always been priced about i shilling below the 

 best plantation, it shows that the trade, if they were not aware 

 of the contents of the smoke dried article, at least valued it on 

 a lower plane than what they took to be its equivalent pro- 

 duced away from the native habitat of the producing tree. 



It is suggested by the above quoted authority that perhaps 

 now it will be found that it is not defective coagulation or in- 

 activity of the producing trees that causes inferiority of tensile 

 strength in the " cultivated " product but just the absence of 

 blending, which has naturally resulted in less purity. Mixing 

 of various latices has, of course, long been done in Africa also 

 by natives — especially in parts where natives &rt forced to hT\ng 

 in so much rubber and cannot be particular as to which plant or 

 tree it comes from, or whether it is from one or more species. 

 The result is that low prices are obtained, latex of Landolphias 

 useless for rubber purposes often being thrown in. 



The evidence so far is that the tensile strength of smoked 

 rubber from the Sapium is less than that of Hevea rubber ; but 



