278 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June i, 1906. 



and does require special treatment in the factory, is not 

 necessarily unfavorable. 



Ever since the industry was begun, based upon I'aia 

 rubber, supplies from new sources have been coming for- 

 ward, until now less than half the rubber used is of the 

 Para grades. Every new sort has required special treat- 

 ment, or has been found adapted to special uses, and 

 now there are African rubbers, unheard of in Cioodyear's 

 time, selling for four times the price of good Para wlien 

 he discovered vulcanization. Plantation rubber is good 

 rubber naturally ; it will be improved in preparation ; 

 and it is bound in time to be the chief dependence of the 

 industry. Mr. Burgess has done a good work, however, 

 in telling the planters that they have much work liefore 

 them, in order to get the best possible results. 



A NEW FRA IN RUBBER EXTRACTION. 



THERE has been developed, principally in connection 

 with the Mexican shrub known as " Guayule," a 

 very considerable interest in the extraction of connner- 

 cial rubber from ])lants not adapted to anj' method of 

 tapping. Many processes have been utilized, all based 

 in part upon the maceration of the plant as a whole, and 

 the ultimate separation from the mass of all the rubber 

 contained. 



As is well known, very much of the world's present 

 supply of rubber is obtained by methods other than the 

 tapping of the trees. A va.st amount of ruldier — includ- 

 ing the South American grades marketed as " Caucho," 

 or Peruvian — has always been collected by felling tlie 

 trees and "ringing" trunks at fre(pient intervals, to 

 allow the late.x to escape. Gutta-perclia and Balata are 

 obtained in the same way. The Landolphia climbers in 

 Africa are torn down from the forest trees, and cut into 

 small pieces, from each end of which the latex exudes. 

 Some millions of jiounds more of rubljer are gained in 

 Africa from plants which contain the material only in 

 the roots, the bark of which is beaten off with stones, 

 the gummy mass resulting being boiled by the nati\es to 

 separate the rubber. 



It is these various practices that have so rajiidly nar- 

 rowed the native sources of rubber. They are all due to 

 the fact that .so nuich more rubber is available from cer- 

 tain trees and plants by other means than tapping ; tlie 

 "root rubber" could not be obtained at all by lapping. 

 Before cnlti\-ation was introduced it seemed likely that 

 in time only the Hevea species would be left as the 

 world's ultimate dependence, as these are invariably 

 tapped, even in the most remote forests. Under culti- 

 vation, however, the Castilloa, Kickxia, and some other 

 .species are capable of being tapped successfully, but 

 there remain a number of other plants, valuable for rub- 

 ber, which are not likely to yield at a profit without the 

 destruction of the plants. 



There is thus suggested a much wider field for the 

 scientific processes lately introduced in Mexico than in 



niereh' exploiting Guayule rubber. If the Landolphia 

 climbers, for example, must be sacrificed, their yield 

 ought to be largely increased, by .scientific methods, over 

 what is now obtained by the rude practices of the Con- 

 golese. It may be that some of the species not capable 

 of being tapped will yet Ix- cultivated extensively, with 

 a view to destroying the plants and the final sys- 

 tematic extraction of all tlie rubber they contain. It 

 would not be surprising if the owners of .some of these 

 processes, in the hunger for rubber, should even accpiire 

 plantations of trees capable of being tapped, in order to 

 gain an innnediate large return. 



No doubt the widespread success of the new scientific 

 treatment here referred to will temporarily increase the 

 output of rubber from certain sections, but it will only 

 hasten the destruction of existing rubber yielding plants. 

 In any event the rubber planting iriterest of to-day has 

 nothing to fear from the new condition ; it may yet be 

 the means of opening a new field of profitable planting. 



It has been asserted, though of course accurate data 

 are lacking, that more rubber can be obtained from a 

 five year old tree by cutting it down and extracting all 

 the latex than by tapping it for five consecutive years. 

 The question may occur to some people, therefore : 

 Why not do it, and replant ? 



There has been much condemnation of the wholesale 

 destruction of wild rubber trees in Central and vSouth 

 .\merica, whereby the unlettered natives have gained so 

 much rubber. What will be .said if scientific rubber 

 hunters in the near future sweep over those countries, 

 buying rubber plantations only to grind up the trees, 

 and scouring forests for other latex bearers, every shred 

 of which will disappear in the capacious maw of an ex- 

 tracting machine ? But such a proceeding need not be 

 viewed with horror. The main thing is to get rubber, ■ 

 and to get it quickly. The trees are not sacred, but 

 only the rubber in them. Why not get it out, and in 

 use, and replant fast enough to more than make U]) for 

 what are destroved. ? 



THE PRICE OF GUAYULE RUBBER. 



^ I ^llli attitude of the rubber manufacturer toward Guayule 

 -*- is interesting. In spite of the fact that more than a 

 million pounds have already been used, there are very many 

 who still look upon it as a laboratory product. They feel 

 very strongly that to use a ton or two tons would endanger 

 whatever part of their product that rubber touched. A lit- 

 tle reflection, however, should lead them to the conclusion 

 that if this rubber were really dangerous many millions of 

 dollars worth of goods would to-day have been ruined and 

 that ])robably some of the users would have "gone broke." 

 Just wliy the trade should not welcome any kind of rubber, 

 no matter from what source, is not at all evident. If 20,- 

 000,000 pounds of Quayule rubber could be brought in at one 

 time, its effect would at once be apparent in the lowering of 

 prices of other grades. That it can be substituted for many 

 African sorts has already been proved. It is also an estab- 

 lished fact that in many lines of mechanical rubber goods, 



