346 



THE INDIA RUBBER \A^ORL,D 



[August i, 1906. 



RUBBHR GATHERING SCHOOLS. 



Till'; importance of French Africa as a rubber produc 

 ing region has been referred to many times in 

 tliese pages. Not only is there a hxrge area, rich in rub- 

 ber of a desiral)k' (juaHty, but tlic progressive policy of 

 the administration promises to make the most of this 

 natural wealth, instead of allowing the ruliber finally U> 

 disappear, as has happened in many other parts of the 

 world. The French apparently have strengthened their 

 authority contintiallv in their West African po.ssessions, 

 gaining and holding the confidence of the native chiefs, 

 to the extent that governmental regulations are neither 

 a dead letter nor enforceable only by means of armed 

 troops. All of which, of course, was an es.sential pre- 

 liminary to any effective regulation of rubber gathering. 



The authorities in the region referred to have striven 

 to prevent the adulteration of rubber, with the result 

 that the yield from .some localities, after having fallen in 

 price in the markets, is again taking high rank and 

 bringing better prices. Likewise, every effort has been 

 made to protect the rubber plants from destruction, 

 though how much can l)e done in this respect remains to 

 be proved. Hut the authorities have gone further. The 

 culture of rubber is encouraged in various ways, with a 

 view to the natives benefiting thereby, and actual plant- 

 ing has been done in a number of places. 



Not least in importance of the steps taken by the ad- 

 ministration is the establishment of .schools for the in- 

 struction of the natives in rubber planting and in the 

 collection of rubber, whether from native or cultivated 

 trees. This work has been in charge of the very efficient 

 inspector of agriculture for French West Africa, M. 

 Yves Henry, who lately has visited Europe with a \itw 

 to learning better how to prepare rubber to fit it for the 

 requirements of the consumer. He has made a study, too, 

 of the best species for planting under different conditions. 



We do not suppo.se, of cour.se, that the world's pro- 

 duction of rubber is going to be modified largely in the 

 near future by these rubber planting .schools, but the 

 capacity of the natives to learn better planting methods 

 api)ears established, and the one thing remaining is to 

 tempt them to habits of industry by teaching them new 

 wants which can be met only by working. The idea of 

 such schools is creditable to its author and deserves 

 adoption in other regions. 



Oki,.-\hom.\, thk forty-sixth star in the American 

 galaxy, makes her advent as a State with a larger actual 

 population than could be claimed by any of her sisters 

 on first attaining statehood. In fact, twcnt}' older states 

 contain fewer people to-day. Not that the number of its 

 citizens counts most in the rank of a state, but the more 

 good citizens the better, and the Oklahomans will suflTcr by 

 comparison with none in independence, energj- and the other 

 qualities which from the birth of the nation have made 

 £br its material and moral progress. The West has never 

 been lacking in the production of strong men, tlie newest 



state taking rank in this respect with the older, so that 

 Oklahoma may be regarded not as a fledgling, but as a full 

 grown member of a family the strength of whicli is shared 

 by all its members. Leaving all other considerations aside, 

 llie settlement of the new state broadens the field for Ameri- 

 can industry and trade, her people having started, so to 

 speak, beyond the condition of being merely self support- 

 ing, and able to buy on the liberal American scale. It is 

 the continual development of such new states during the 

 past century — a work surpassing the colonial expansion of 

 any European power — that has made this country so little 

 interested, comparatively, in the development of trade abroad. 



Tiiii woRLo's PRODUCTION oi" KViiiiER during the year 

 ended June 30 was, by all accounts, the largest for any year 

 in the history of the trade. The fact that prices have been 

 maintained at so high a figure indicates, first, a heavy rate 

 of consumption, and, secondly, uncertainty as to the size of 

 ne.xt year's supplies. Nothing in commerce is more uncer- 

 tain than how much rubber will be available in any year, 

 and as a heavy demand can always be counted, an increase of 

 a few hundred tons in the world's visible supply does not 

 put holders of crude rubber in a panic to sell. 



What ai'I'KArs worth a note in passing is that a lead- 

 ing financial journal in Boston, where public attention was 

 recently attracted for a month to a trial which led to the 

 conviction of a rubber plantation company promoter for dis- 

 honest practices, comes out with an article in defense of 

 rubber planting. " The real difficulty, " says this journal, 

 ' ' was not as to the growing of rubber in Mexico, but it is in 

 the mismanagement and fraud as practiced by Owen and 

 Borges. " 



A READABLE .STORY RELATING TO MEXICO and entitled 

 "A Home on a Rubber Plantation " appears in the fiction 

 department of one of our contemporaries. It has just oc- 

 curred to us that very many articles published on rubber in 

 Mexico do not have to be placed in any particular depart- 

 ment for them to be recognized as fiction. 



Prosperity has become the rule in Germany again, 

 apparently on a more general scale than before the trade de- 

 pression of a few years ago. The rubber industry appears 

 to have had its full share in the improved conditions, judg- 

 ing from the increased consumption of raw materials, the 

 extension of factory capacitj-, and the larger dividends de- 

 clared by the leading companies. 



The new Brazilian tariff law makes a concession of 

 20 per cent, in the duty on ice boxes imported from the 

 United States. Ice boxes would make very good packing 

 cases for the shipment of fine rubber, and the reduced rate 

 probablj' is intended as a measure for the encouragement of 

 the rubber interest. The reduction is also applied to flour, 

 which some people have been unkind enough to suggest 

 makes an excellent " filler " for crude rubber. 



It would seem, from a study of the patent oflice issues, 

 that every suggestion possible to be made for rendering tires 

 puncture proof has been exploited, except the treatment of 

 compressed air to prevent it from escaping when a puncture 

 occurs. 



