50 



THE INDIA RUBBER AA^ORLD 



[November i, 1905. 



rubber gatherers profess ignorance on the subject generally, 

 through fear of the contractors they work for. Nevertheless 

 a big field of enquiry as to the blending of latices of various 

 rubber producing trees, of which Hevta Brasiliensis, Castilloa, 

 and Ceara rubber are (in order) so far the chief, is now presented. 



It would take the life time of a chemical expert or two to dis- 

 cover which is the best resulting blend. It seems to us that 

 the rubber industry with its various blends — which, be itnoted, 

 would be made before reaching the market of consumption (the 

 American suggestion to leave manufacturers to do their own 

 blending overlooks the fact that the particular " blending " in 

 question must occur long before the manufacturer is reached, 

 namely at the place of production) — may in time become as 

 complicated as the tea industry is after the tea has reached the 

 buyers' hands, at which point blending in the tea trade begins. 



From the information presented to-day, there would appear 

 to be even greater need than before for a Ceylon officer like 

 Mr. Frederick Lewis, to be detached for investigation in South 

 America, and to enquire specially in regard to rubber blending 

 in Pari; while the field for study, before our local "rubber " 

 experts-to-be (the chemical analyst, Mr. Bamber,and his assist- 

 ant, Mr. Bruce) has been appreciably widened — through the 

 work of Mr. Henri Jumelle and Dr. Huber and the attention 

 drawn to it by the American consul in Para. 



YIELD OF PLANTED "PARA" RUBBER. 



TO THE Editor of The Indi.\ Rubber World : Referring 

 to the following extract from your October i issue (page 

 30), there seem to the writer to be some discrepancies in it, and 

 he would like to call your attention to the same: 



The London correspondent of The Tinu-s of Ceylon vix'Mes,: "Talk- 

 ing to the director of a Straits rubber company this week, he mentioned 

 that on their property too coolies a day were hard at work tapping and 

 bringing in 12 ounces a day. The yield per tree (the trees being from 

 si-t to seven years old) was some 6 ounces from the one tapping, and the 

 manager estimated that the yield per tree for the year would be i^ 

 pounds of rubber per tree operated upon. The first consignment sold 

 last week at bs. ^d. [=$l.50j^]." 



First, the statement is made that loo coolies are bringing in 

 12 ounces a day; should not this read i2 pounds per man? 

 Second, the amount received from a consignment is mentioned 

 in the last line at 6.;. 7(/. or$i.5o|s. Ought this not to be $1.59;^? 



NORTON H. BYAM, 



Secretary Chicago Rubber Planting Co. 

 Chicago, Illinois, October 7, 1905. 



The paragraph quoted was given space in accordance with 

 our policy to compile from whatever source data bearing upon 

 the yield of rubber trees of different species and under varying 

 conditions. We do not know what plantation was referred to 

 in the Ceylon newspaper; the point which concerned us was 

 that He^iea trees "six to seven years old " yielded in a year ijg 

 pounds of rubber each, or more than 200 pounds per acre, the 

 general practice being to plant 200 trees to the acre. 



Later issues of The Times of Ceylon have devoted much at- 

 tention to the rate of yield of Para rubber {Hevea) under culti- 

 vation, and the working force needed. Mr. G. H. GoUedge, 

 writing in the issue of August 17, regardsthree coolies per acre 

 sufficient for tapping rubber planted 200 trees to the acre, so 

 long as the yield is only one pound per tree; as the trees in- 

 crease in size and the yield becomes larger an additional num- 

 ber of coolies would be required. He says: " A cooly should 

 tap from 40 to 80 trees per day, according to size of trees - - - 

 Latex from the 80 trees produces one pound of dry rubber." 

 It must be kept in mind that the Para rubber tree in the Far 

 East, as on the Amazon, is tapped many times during the year. 



the yield at each tapping being very small. Where 100 coolies 

 are referred to above as bringing in 12 ounces each per day, the 

 idea is that they will do this the year round. The " one tap- 

 ping " referred to is one period or season of tapping; to gain 

 I Is pounds of rubber per tree would involve three such periods 

 of tapping in a year, 6 ounces for each period. 



In the issue of August 18, Mr. Francis J. Holloway estimates 

 that one cooly — for tapping alone — should be able to take care 

 of 125 trees per day up to the time that they yield 3 pounds of 

 rubber each per year, and he gives figures to show that 100 

 coolies— for tapping and curing rubber — should be sufficient for 

 100 acres of rubber, planted 200 trees to the acre and yielding 

 600 pounds of rubber per acre, but this involves working every 

 day in the year. His figures analyzed show an average collec- 

 tion of about 2 pounds daily for each hand employed at.tapping, 

 but this refers to older and more productive trees than on the 

 Straits plantation mentioned by Mr. Byam. 



Mr. W. W. Bailey writing in the issue of August 19 says: 

 "Our men bring in from i to \\i and lYt pounds of rubber 

 per day per man, and when our trees get older we shall get 2 

 pounds per man per day." But supposing one man brings in 

 only one pound per day, and works only 300 days in the year, 

 666 tappers would be able to take 200.000 pounds of rubber from 

 1000 acres. The writers quoted above are among the leading 

 Ceylon and Straits planters of rubber. 



The above figures of yield seem liberal, in view of the fact 

 that mature native rubber trees in the state of Pard are tapped 

 perhaps 100 times in a year to obtain often less than 5 pounds 

 of rubber, though trees never before tapped may yield 10 pounds. 

 None of these considerations, however, apply necessarily to 

 other species of rubber than Hevea, and this, we assume, is not 

 the species our correspondent is planting. 



The London price mentioned is a misprint for $1.60^8, the 

 equivalent of the English value, converted at $4.8665 per £. 

 —The Editor. 



PLANTING MONEY INSTEAD OF RUBBER. 



THE" directors " of The International Rubber and Trading 

 Co. (successor to Mr. John Cudahy's Para Rubber Plan- 

 tation Co.) continue to have fun with the misguided investors 

 in their merry game of fraud in the name of rubber. Recently 

 a printed notice was sent out to the stockholders, without date 

 or mention of place of origin, but signed — 



H. S. PERKINS, HARVEY HARDING. 



Secretary. President. 



— stating that an "annual " meeting had been held at Phoenix, 

 Arizona, at which had been ratified the proceedings of a "spe- 

 cial " meeting at Phanix the day before, and another at Chi- 

 cago still earlier ; that a board of directors had been chosen, with 

 full power to retire stock and issue bonds; that the directors 

 had elected officers and "a general manager who, with our 

 chosen working representatives in the field " was leaving for 

 South America, where " the working season for rubber " is from 

 July to January. 



No names except as above — no figures — nothing but the de- 

 tails just quoted, and the assertion : 



The foregoing statement seems to the board of directors suft'icient 

 evidence without going further into details, as to who controls the prop- 

 erty of the International Rubber and Trading Co., and the only reply 

 needed by our intelligent stockholders to any statements that claim 

 otherwise. 



How the authors of the circular must have laughed when 

 writing " intelligent stockholders !" But did Mr. John Cudahy 

 — in case he is still a stockholder — laugh when he got one of 

 the circulars? 



