383 



THE INDIA RUBi>£R WORLD 



[September i, 1906. 



RUBBER PROFITS IN THE FAR EAST. 



FARREL ACQUIRES THE KELLY PLANS. 



I'KOM THK SINGAPORE " STRAITS TIMKS." 



''T^lIIvRlv have been genuine disappointments in certain in- 

 -*- stances; and there have been definite reasons for them 

 Thedisaijpointments, speaking broadh-, have been associated 

 with the Malay States, partly explained by reason of the ab- 

 sence of experience and close supervision, and partly by tlie 

 inflated notions which some people always form. I'oor re- 

 sults have not been experienced in Ceylon because people in 

 the island know, at first or second hand, what is happening 

 month by month and it is some other place, alleged to be 

 wonderfully favored by nature and ahead of the procession 

 by the lucky speculation of those who were driven to look 

 for something more renumerative than coflee, which is the HI 

 Dorado of the Ceylon imagination, and which should al- 

 ready have accomplished in rubber twice as much as the ut- 

 termost possible. 



The fact is that, speaking collectively, both Malaya and 

 Ceylon have done exceedingly well, and those planters hav- 

 ing mature rubber or acreage approaching the bearing stage 

 have reaped and will reap abundantly. The main (luestion is 

 —what are the prospects of those beginning to plant now ? 

 There is nothing whatever to cause a doubt that, with well 

 selected land, their outlook is also extremely promising. 

 Not so good, be it remembered, as with estates which will 

 secure for their produce the market figures of the present and 

 next four or five years ; but still amply to show the owner 

 of 200 acres a modest competency in ten years. 



Cautious people do not publish broadcast estimates for fu- 

 ture work based on present figures, either of market value or 

 daily labor, without making more than mental reservations. 

 The allowances are large and well emphasized. To illustrate 

 the point, there are to-day reliable valuers estimating rubber 

 in bearing, and evenly planted, as worth upwards of /'200 

 per acre ; but who would venture to value at the same figure 

 for the year 1912 an estate being planted this autumn? 

 Half the price would be a sufficiently roseate anticipation. 



However fast the demand is increasing, it would be the 

 height of folly to fail to understand that, with huge areas 

 being put under cultivation all round the world's tropical 

 belt, maintenance of anything like the present huge profit 

 per pound cannot be reckoned upon. The investor who has 

 hitherto been carried along in the swift current of specula- 

 tion may have made more than he dreamed two years ago 

 was possible in so brief a time, short of drawing a Derby 

 winner ; but if he is keeping what he has made in rubber, and 

 would see it increa.se without taking absurd risks or prepar 

 ing himself for serious disappointment, he should remember 

 two things : — 



First, immediate returns are apt to be exaggerated as the 

 prospects of different companies are bandied about between 

 men in the street ; and (2) reliable valuations of estates in 

 bearing or approaching bearing are now at their highest— 

 i.e., developed estates are of greater market value to day 

 than estates which are maturing by 1912 will be in that year. 

 Already those who prophesied a higher average price in 

 1906 than in 1905, whether for fine Para or plantation rubber, 

 are finding themselves in the wrong. 



^ I \\V, l'"anel I'oundry an<l Machine Co. announce lli.'t 

 -^ they have purchased the drawings, patterns, and goi d 

 will of the National Water Tube Boiler Co. (New Brunswick, 

 New Jersey) for the rubber machinery which they formerly 

 manufactured, as the National company are going out of 

 this line of business. This business was founded by Wil- 

 liam E. Kelly, who was among the first to make a S])ecially 

 of machinery for rubber work. He made an exhibit at the 

 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, in i<S76, which prob- 

 ably was the first display of the kind ever made. No doubt 

 all of the older rubber factories in the country have at some 

 time used machinery made at the Kelly works, though in 

 the earlier days much equipment of such factories were 

 made at local foundries on specifications furnished by the 

 rubber superintendents. In an early number of Thic Lndia 

 Rubber Woui.n mention was made of Mr. Kelly having 

 filled an important order for machinery for the rubber shoe 

 manufacture for a large Russian factory, in com]ieliti(in 

 with the leading Ivuropeaii makers. The business was long 

 conducted as the National Iron Works, and on the retire- 

 ment of Mr. Kelly, on account of ill health, passed under 

 the control of the National Water Tube Co. It should l)e 

 mentioned that the Parrel Foundry and Machine Co. estab- 

 lished in 1.S4.S for making chilled rolls, have also a long rec- 

 ord in the manufacture of rubber machinery. Mr. Franklin 

 Farrel, son of the founder and now president of the com- 

 pany, has been in charge of the business since 1857. 



OBITUARY. 



CYRENIAS N. SQUIRES, of Naugatuck, Connecticut, 

 died at his summer home in Middletown on August 

 20. He was born at Redding, Conn., January 25, i8;,2, and 

 in 1850 secured employment in the rubber factory of John 

 Greacen, at Sandy Hook. Two jears later he went to the 

 Union India Rubber Co. 's factorj' at Naugatuck, later oper- 

 ated by the Goodyear's India Rubber Glove Manufacturing 

 Co., where he remained until early in 1904, when he retired. 

 Two Ncars during the civil war he was in the Union army. 

 Mr. Squires assisted Ciiarles Goodyear in a number of experi- 

 ments and made several inventions in connection with rub- 

 ber work that proved of value. Mr. Squires had four sons, 

 whom he introduced into the rubber industry, including 

 Eugene D. Squires, who succeeded his father as foreman of 

 the clothing department of the Glove company, and Arthur 

 C. Squires, now of Akron, Ohio. He had also a daughter, 

 who is the wife of Xoyes E. Ailing, president of the Ailing 

 Rubber Co. .^t the time of leaving the Glove conij)an\' Mr. 

 Squires stated that he had never experienced a day's illnets. 



TiiKKiC are indications that Havre is destined to become 

 a very much more important market for crude rubber. 



It is stated that in the annual parade of the New York 

 police, recentl}', participated in bj* about 7000 members of 

 the force, nearly all of them wore rubber collars. A news- 

 paper mentions that over $17,000 worth of such collars were 

 disposed of to the men just before the parade. The use of 

 rubber collars was not obligatory, but the suggestion came 

 from an official that they be worn, and nearly every patrol- 

 man took them. It is mentioned that the sale was effected 

 by a woman. .Vii increasing sale of rubber collars and cuffs 

 is reported in many other directions. 



