30 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October i, 1908. 



THE RUBBER TRADE AT SAN FRANCISCO. 



BY A RESIDENT CORRESPONDENT. 



RESULTS that are being obtained by the rubber goods 

 dealers in San Francisco indicate that active times are 

 approaching, if indeed they are not now at hand. The 

 change has been coming on so gradually that it is difficult to 

 say ju?t when the dull times began to wear away, and the more 

 active times are of such recent date that dealers still hesitate 

 somewhat before they will commit themselves to the statement 

 that they are now doing a good business. And yet from nearly 

 all of the local houses comes the report that sales are forth- 

 coming to a degree that is highly encouraging. Almost anyone 

 will say that things are in better shape than they were in July. 

 It had been thought by some that the feeling of quiet times, 

 when it spread to the interior of the State, would have a lasting 

 effect on the country districts, but it seems otherwise. There 

 was but a very short period during which the country merchants 

 perceptibly curtailed their active orders, and at this time there 

 is a greater feeling of prosperity throughout the country dis- 

 tricts than locally in San Francisco. 



Mr. Crandley, of the Plant Rubber and Supply Co., states that 

 business keeps up to a very fair standard, with a slight tendency 

 to improvement, although he does not look for a greatly im- 

 proved business until spring. 



Mr. W. D. Jennings, representing the H. B. Sherman Manu- 

 facturing Co. (Battle Creek, Michigan), was in San Francisco 

 during the latter part of September. 



The Bowers Rubber Works, reports the manager, Mr. Chase, 

 are getting ready for next season's business. The factory is run- 

 ning full, all of the travelers are out, and orders are coming in 

 satisfactorily. 



Mr. Charles Taber, manager of the new fire apparatus and 

 supply department of the Gorham Rubber Co., states that his 

 department is coming rapidly to the front, doing practically 

 second to the largest business in these lines in this city. There 

 has been a great deal of hose sold here recently, and Mr. Taber 

 is working into this business. Their special hose brands, made 

 for them by the Goodrich people, are coming to the front with 

 the aid of the new department. 



Mr. Kirkpatrick, the B. F. Goodrich Co.'s Pacific coast repre- 

 sentative, has returned from the convention of tire dealers in the 

 East, and is now at his offices at No. 52 Fremont street. 



Mr. Robert Thomson, who was manager for The Fisk Rubber 

 Co. at No. 1036 Golden Gate avenue, is now with the Michel 

 Tire Co. The present manager in San Francisco of the Fisk 

 company is Mr. Maurice Gibson, who was formerly with the 

 Sterling Rubber Co. of this city. 



Mr. W. J. Gorham, of the Gorham Rubber Co., returned from 

 his Eastern trip, went up immediately to the firm's Seattle 

 branch, and after a short stay there to see that everything was 

 in good order, returned to San Francisco. Mr. Heckman, the 

 sales-manager of the firm, is still in the East. Mr. Parish, 

 now in Japan, sends the report that business there is very quiet. 

 Mr. Sargeant, manager in San Francisco, states that business 

 has within the last thirty days taken a favorable turn on this 

 coast, and is looking considerably better. The employes of 

 the firm are taking an active interest in athletics, and have a 

 baseball team which is ready to compete with teams formed by 

 any other company. 



Following the acquisition by Dodge Brothers, proprietors of 

 the Western Belting and Hose Co., of the "Manhattan" lines 

 formerly controlled by the Pacific Hardware and Steel Co., it 

 is now rumored that the big hardware concern known as Dun- 

 ham, Carrigan & Hayden are about to give up the ''Peerless" 

 lines, and that the Pacific Coast Rubber Co. will take the line. 

 It seems that the hardware houses are gradually losing their 

 rubber lines. 

 Mr. L. L. Torrey, manager of the Pennsylvania Rubber Co.'s 



branch, says : "Business is good and collections are fairly good, 

 and improving. We are, in fact, very busy and expect to be 

 more so. These are facts, too, because conditions are very 

 greatly improved. We have no fault to find with anything in 

 the world." 



The cut in the price of tires has caused considerable com- 

 ment, although on the whole the comment is probably favorable. 

 The cut has been felt by the dealers, but others prophesy that 

 tires will be purchased in sufficient quantities to make up what- 

 ever the dealers may lose by the cut in price. 



Mr. Perkins, of the Sterling Rubber Co., notes great improve- 

 ment during the past month, especially in the sundries line. The 

 druggists are now beginning to purchase freely and conditions 

 in that department are near to normal. They are paying up 

 very much better, too, than they did for a while. 



Messrs. Kanzee and Ralph, of the Phoenix Rubber Co., have 

 been somewhat slow about getting established in their new store 

 and factory, but they are having everything put into ship-shape 

 condition so that there will be no loose ends to pick up after they 

 have become settled. 



Mr. Joseph Selby, representative of the Boston Woven Hose 

 and Rubber Co., now in the interior on one of his regular trips, 

 sends in reports which indicate that the country districts are 

 in almost normal condition again. 



A WEED EATING TROPICAL CREEPER. 



[from the WESTMINSTER GAZETTE, LONDON.] 



T T appears that at last an antidote has been found to the noxious 

 weeds which are so frequently the death of certain forms 

 of plant and vegetable life in the East. Specimens of this won- 

 derful "find" have been forwarded to the authorities at Kew 

 Gardens. This plant is a blue flowering creeper botanically 

 known as the Commelina dudiAora linnea, but called "rumput 

 gremah" by the natives of Malayasia and "ge-war-en" by the 

 Javanese. Although the report made at Kew goes to show that 

 this creeper is common throughout the Middle East, it would seem 

 that the managers of estates and plantations have not known 

 of its peculiarly welcome properties until very recently and ac- 

 cidentally. 



The prolific weed known as "lalang" is the great enemy to 

 rubber growth. It was the accident of observing that where 

 the blue flowered creeper came in contact with the lalang the 

 latter became much less injurious that induced a planter to send 

 specimens to Kew. It seems that at first one begins to notice 

 that the weeds are becoming less prolific where the creeper 

 is growing among them. This improvement steadily increases 

 as times goes on and it has been found that under the influence 

 of this antidote lalang which was formerly four or five feet 

 in height has been reduced to only one or two feet when it starts 

 to flower. 



But the joyful discovery having been made that here was an 

 undoubted setback to the weedy growth that chokes young rubber 

 and is the bane of the planter's life, the question arose : Would 

 the antidote itself exercise a prejudicial efTect on the rubber? 

 Therefore the specimens were duly submitted to Kew, and, as 

 stated to our representative, the new creeper is "unlikely to have 

 any harmful effect on young rubber trees." Planters all over 

 the East may therefore take heart of grace and also take this 

 new "medicine." 



In appearance the blue flowered Commelina nudiAora is rather 

 pretty, and like the weeds which it first checks and then kills 

 it grows with astonishing rapidity. The particular estate whose 

 manager made the discovery and acted upon it so promptly 

 and satisfactorily is the Langkon estate, in British North Bor- 

 neo. The amount of rubber produced annually in the Straits Set- 

 tlements is, of course, very large, and the results of the discovery 

 and its successful application in a practical way are likely to be 

 far reaching. 



