56 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[NOVEMBEK I, 1908. 



the first eight months of the current year no less than 

 2,618.652 pounds [ = 1142j/^ metric tons] were shipped 

 from Ceylon and the Malay States alone — of the high- 

 •est priced rubber in the world's markets. This is at 

 the rate of 1714 tons per year. Considered from one 

 standpoint this is not a large figure. The world's 

 approximate total production for the fiscal year 1907- 

 '08, according to one of the best authorities, was 66,- 

 -379 tons, compared with which the Ceylon and Malaya 

 product would figure only about 2j4 per cent. It must 

 be considered, however, how rapidly the plantation 

 product has increased in volume, only 296 tons having 

 come from the Far East in the first eight months of 

 1906, and practically nothing back of 1904. Its intrin- 

 sic value must also be taken into account, one ton of 

 Ceylon rubber offsetting in the factory from 1^^ to 5 

 tons of other grades ; its superior selling value is no 

 less marked. 



It might be pointed out that at the same rate of 

 increase, the output of plantation rubber from the Far 

 East in 1910 would amount to 10,000 tons. While we 

 doubt that this result will be reached so soon, there 

 can be no doubt that by the time the many millions of 

 carefully cultivated young rubber trees already planted 

 have come "into bearing," the product of plantations 

 will easily rank first in the matter of quantity in any 

 list of crude rubbers. 



It is not to be understood, however, that the busi- 

 ness of rubber planting involves no unsettled problems. 

 About all that has been settled definitely is the afifirm- 

 ative answering of the three questions in the opening 

 paragraph of this orticle. The success attained in the 

 Far East has related mainly to the Hevea species, but 

 the details have little bearing upon the culture of other 

 rubber yielding species; they are not even conclusive 

 with regard to Hevea in other regions. 



Now to confine our attention to Hevea alone, and in 

 Ceylon and Malaya, the questions remain to be con- 

 sidered: How should the ground be prepared for 

 planting? How close to plant? Should the ground be 

 kept clean while the seedlings are getting a start? 

 Should "catch crops" be planted, and if so what? 

 When to begin tapping? What method of tapping to 

 adopt? What form in which to send the rubber to 

 market? We have seen that, without the final set- 

 tlement of any one of these questions, much planta- 

 tion rubber has been produced and sold and put to 

 use, and much of it at a profit to all concerned. Never- 

 theless, the questions here suggested, and many more, 

 are deserving of careful consideration. 



It is not too much to say that the future settled 

 practice of national rubber culture remains to be de- 

 fined, and that in all probability the scientific estate 

 manager ten years hence may regard as exceedingly 

 crude the best work in rubber production of the pres- 

 ent year. Hence we look forward to having occasion 

 to devote no little space to the subject of the further 



development of rubber culture, not only in the regions 

 where the greatest success has been attained thus far, 

 but in other regions as well. 



THE TAXICAB TRUST. 



'T~'HOUGH one taxicab may not run far in its appointed 

 ■*• sphere, taxicabs on a whole are doing much to make the 

 whole world akin. In our news pages note is made of the 

 listing on the Paris stock exchange of the shares of the leading 

 company, to date, in supplying New Yorkers with a taxicab serv- 

 ice, and already Parisian "bulls" and "bears" were trading in 

 the shares of the leading London company in the same field. 

 It has come to the point, really, that the thrifty French investor 

 may be interested, while he enjoys his newspaper and his morning 

 cofifee together, in learning whether it has been raining in New 

 York. More rain, more taxicab passengers, more dividends for 

 himself. For France is the home of the new service, and 

 France has supplied not only the vehicles and appliances, but an 

 important amount of capital in introducing the new conveniences 

 elsewhere. French directors sit on the boards of the corporations 

 which collect taxicab fares in New York as well as in London and 

 most other important English cities. 



If the politicians hear of this they may decide that they have an- 

 other peg on which to hang an argument against "trusts," but this 

 will avail little if the public should happen to vote the taxicab a 

 good innovation — which they seem disposed to do. The truth is that 

 the individual owner of a cab horse, working his own plant, can- 

 not render so good a service, and at so small a cost, as the elab- 

 orately organized system of carrying passengers in cities every- 

 where, which is the basis of the new line of securities listed on 

 the Paris bourse, to which reference has been made here. Doubt- 

 less the taxicab business will become less centralized in Paris in 

 time, but that city deserves the credit for the innovation. But 

 wherever the profits go, the rubber tire manufacturers may expect 

 to benefit in whatever country the new vehicles are operated. 



If anybody is working overtime these days it must be the 

 tire inventing class. They work even while they sleep, for 

 surely they could not turn out during waking hours alone such 

 a volume of contributions as they make to the patent office 

 files. Besides, some of the specifications suggest "dreams" — 

 mental activity after the midnight oil has ceased to burn. This 

 is not recorded by way of criticism or complaint; the more the 

 merrier for the looker on ! But what reward has the inventor 

 for such incessant efTort? We have no idea that the motorists — 

 the buyers of tires — ever hear of such strange things as they 

 might if they had enough curiosity to read all the patent speci- 

 fications. Can it be that the tire inventors have a grudge 

 against the patent ofiice examiners, which they seek to make 

 felt by overwhelming the latter with work? 



Not satisfied merely with making artificial rubber 

 "equal to the best Para," an English inventor, according to 

 the newspapers, has gone so much farther as to make "a latex 

 which could be coagulated into rubber." Whoever can produce 

 a latex without the aid of nature ought not to find it difficult 

 to produce latex yielding trees without waiting for seeds to 

 germinate, and, what is more, trees that will yield latex in 

 every climate, without regard to seasons. The artificial rubber 

 inventor, when he comes to be really in earnest, knows no 

 such word as impossibility. 



A recent theft on an extensive scale of motor tires 

 is referred to in a local newspaper as having been carried out 

 by burglars who didn't molest the cash or other valuables in 

 the store. Which might justify the firm in claiming to make 

 "good tires." Also, rubber surely is "going up" when it gets 

 to be worth more than money. 



