112 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1906. 



according to the girth of the tree an expert cooly can fully tap 

 30 to 40 trees per day (morning tapping only), bring in the la- 

 tex to the factory, strain, and coagulate it, mangle the rub- 

 ber, and be entirely responsible for turning it out into dry 

 sheet rubber ready for packing and shipment, in the shape in 

 which it reaches the London market. 



There is very little scrap with this system, and all that there 

 is has to be carefully pulled off the wound before the pricker 

 can be used, so that no scrap is wasted. The rubber turned 

 out is some of the finest ever seen in Ceylon. Such yields 

 as these, and such excellent results with the trees are un- 

 equaled, and there need be no hesitation in stating that the 

 spiral system will be widely taken up on plantations. Already 

 on well known Ceylon estates it has been started, and also in 

 the Federated Malay States. Undoubtedly this is one of the 

 most important forward steps made in the industry for a con- 

 siderable time. 



PLANTING "CEARA'- RUBBER IN COLOMBIA. 



BY HENRY G. GRANGER. 



[Translation of a Report of a Visit to " La Barrigona,'* to his E.TCellency 

 Dr. Mo{iesto Garces, Minister of Public Works of Colombia.] 



AT the beginning of the month I visited the hacienda " La 

 Barrigona,"* property of Messrs. Simon and Ignacio de 

 la Torre, which occupies a large area on the banks of the Mag- 

 dalena, one hour's riding from Cambao. It includes pastures 

 capable, according to the manager, Sefior Antonio Padellia, of 

 sustaining 3000 cattle; a large plantain patch, corn, yuca,and a 

 rubber plantation. Of the many buildings which were there 

 before the war I only found left the bodega and main house, 

 large and commodious, with wide porches, a testimonial of the 

 good taste of the owners. 



The rubber plantation is new and of its class the only one in 

 Colombia (Manihoi Glaziovii, producer of " white rubber "). A 

 sample without any preparation was quoted in London at 90 

 cents (United States gold) per pound, some months since. At 

 the beginning of the war (or in 1900) they planted some 500 

 trees of seeds imported from Ceylon. When the encampment 

 was established there the soldiers cut down the little trees for 

 tent stretchers, leaving only some 25, which are to-day very 

 well developed ; some being more than 12 inches thick in the 

 trunk. They are planted approximately at 5 meters [ = i6;4 

 feet] apart, the same distance of planting Castilloa elastica in 

 Choco. 



From the seeds of these trees they have planted some 30,000 

 more trees at a distance of about only 2 meters apart, which is 

 a good thing to prevent weeds, although this renders impossi- 

 ble the complete development of all of the trees. These 30,000 

 trees embrace all sizes, since there are from only a few weeks 

 up to two years. As the trees yield seeds from one year old, a 

 remarkable point even in regard to this class of rubber ; the 

 ground is completely covered with little trees, which for lack of 

 light and space are only about a foot high. The seeds are hard 

 and about the size of an Antioquian bean and remain good, as I 

 have been informed, more than a year without planting them, 

 which is undoubtedly an important advantage, considering that 

 in other places, as in the Choco, if you don't make seed beds 

 within a few days of the seeds [Castilloa^ having fallen, they are 

 lost, either because they become too dry or they rot, and the 

 little trees always suffer somewhat from transplanting. 



The little Manihot\.xt.t% have a smooth bark, while the larger 

 ones (or from 4 inches in diameter up) have the bark turned up 



* The locatioQOf this hacienda is shown ona map in The India Rubbbr World, 

 December i, 1905 (page 75).— The Editor. 



with an apparent inclination of peeling off like the Northern 

 birch, which doesn't appear to me to be a detriment because 

 the latex which flows freely always falls off when the tree is 

 tapped, and the " chaza," or that which dries over on the bark, 

 can easily be pulled off. 



Mr. Alford Bishop Mason has spoken to me of this plantation 

 and was of the opinion that rubber could be extracted from the 



2 year old trees, which have a diameter in the trunk of some 4 

 inches. To determine this point along and careful study would 

 be required. In the Ch~c6 the cultivated rubber trees which 

 are bled are what is called there " borrosos," that is to say, that 

 their latex is thick and coagulates on the bark of the tree with- 

 out the necessity of gathering it in cans or vessels, such as 

 have to be used with the Hevea Brasiliensis for example, which 

 facilitates greatly gathering it, although by reason of the little 

 pieces of bark which remain adhered, the price is diminished. 

 For this reason, in the Choco in some cases they tap the trCes 



3 years old. 



I observed in " La Barrigona" among various trees which I 

 tried with my belt knife that there were only two which gave 

 the thick latex ; the others, even those only one year old yield- 

 ed the latex freely, but it would be necessary to collect it in cans, 

 which would not pay for the trouble in view of the small quan- 

 tity which the little trees yield at a time. If onecould discover 

 the conditions, if there are such, under which all the trees 

 should produce thick latex, then it would be practicable to tap 

 small trees, making them produce from, as the total of many 

 tappings, Y% pound up per year. Otherwise it is necessary to 

 wait until the trees are some 5 years old ; judging froir the 

 quantity which I saw that they bled, even from cuts made 

 on top of old cicatrices, they should easily give from i to 2 

 pounds per year collected in cans stuck on with clay below the 

 tapping. There were in the farm some little hatchets with a 

 blade only an inch long and very thick, which they had gotten 

 to tap the trees, these are of no use. The knife to tap rubber 

 trees should have a long thin blade with a fender to avoid pass- 

 ing the bark. 



I have read in the Orient they extract rubber even from the 

 leaves of some rubber trees by means of presses, and I noted at 

 " La Barrigona " that on cutting or breaking a number of the 

 leaves of the small trees which are below the large ones that 

 they bled little drops of latex. This point is very important 

 and should be experimented on with a hand mill such as can be 

 obtained, with three rollers for grinding cane, from George L. 

 Squires & Co., Buffalo, United States, and others. If it yields 

 a sufficient quantity of latex then a steam mill could be instal- 

 led with a certainty of two crops a year of a plant whose latex 

 condensed is worth 90 cents per pound instead of 2 cents per 

 pound for sugar ; with a certainty that the cultivation will cost 

 nothing and that the trees which drop the seeds in such short 

 time and abundance that they will constitute a source of in- 

 come. 



Herr Franz Clouth, a notable authority on rubber matters, 

 says that the hillsides should be preferred for the cultivation 

 of Matiihot Glaziovii. where it yields more. It would be very 

 advisable that the Messrs. de la Torre should give orders for 

 the planting of some thousands of trees on the hillsides back 

 of the hacienda. Within three years this rubber plantation 

 will have a large value for its owners, and at present is of much 

 importance to Colombia by reason of the abundance of seeds 

 which it yields and which could surely be obtained at a 

 moderate cost from its owners by all who desire to follow 

 their good example in accordance with the present Colombian 

 program of " Peace and Work." 



Cartagena, Colombia, May, 1905. 



