January i, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



105 



THE NATURAL SUPPLY OF RUBBER. 



Fablished on the Ist of eaoh Month h; 



THE INDIA RLIBBKR PUBLISHING CO. 



No. 150 NASSAU ST.. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 



KDIICIR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 



ASSOCIATE. 



Vol. 31 



JANUARY 1, 1905. 



No. 4. 



.SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3.00 per year, $1.75 for six months, postpaid, for the United 

 States and Canada. Koreiyn countries, same price. Special Kates for 

 Clubs of live, ten or more subscribers. 



ADVKKTI8IN0: Kales will be made known on application. 



.MMouNTiNUANCES : Yearly orders for subscriptions and advertising are 

 regarded as permanent, and after the first twelve months they will 

 be discontinued only at the request of the subscriber or advertiser. 

 Bills are rendered promptly at the beginning of each period, and 

 thereby our patrons have due notice of continuance. 



COPYRIGHT, 1904. BY 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



Entered at New York Post Office as mall matter ot the second-class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAOB. 



Editorial : 



The Natural Supply of Rubber w:> 



The Fate of One .Monopoly 108 



Minor E<Mtorlal 107 



A Rubber Planter in Selangor 108 



[VViih Portrait of E V. Carty.] 



Exploring for "Castilloa" Rubber in Panama— II The Editor 109 



[Camp Rio Negro. Roughing It. Story of a Bridge. Castilioa 

 firoves. Birds. AniiDals, and Reptile!;. Cruz, the Huf^ter. Trips of 

 E.\ploration. Ciiiquita, the Commodore, and "' Mula Grande." Co- 

 agulating Rubber with Amole Juice. Native Rubber Manufacture. 

 Llanos. Don Raiinon and Donna Mana. A Treasure Hunt.] 

 [With lo Iliustratious.] 



The Extinction'of African Rubbers Qenrg Wa\dmi 114 



[Obseivauons in the German'Colony of Kamerun] 



The Trouble With African Rubbers fri(mer Diinfjnr 115 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain . Unr Xfgular Cnrrrepondm t 117 

 [Rise in Manufactured Goods. Broadhu.st& Co., Limited. Card Cloth 

 Manufacture. Price of Naphtha, Analysis ad Nauseam, New Book 

 on Ruober. The Weather. The Electric Engineering Industry'. 

 Alnieidina Gum.] 



Affairs of the DnnlopITire Company 119 



Britain's Depressed Cycle Trade >, . 119 



The Stanley Cycle Show 120 



Some Points on Sheet Packings J.W.C. 122 



Literature of India-Rubber 122 



Recent Rubber Patents . 123 



[American. British, German, French.] 



Small Beginnings of a Coming (?) Great Industry 125 



[The Colorado Rubber Plant. With 2 Illustrations.] 



Some Rubber Interests in Europe. . 127 



[Advance on Rubber Goods in Germany. A Consul on the German 

 Rubber Industry, Silvertown Company's Report. Rubber Insu- 

 lated Cables for Cuba. New Pegamoid. Limited. German and 

 Rrjtish Notes ] 



New Trade Publications 128 



The New Combination Rubber Company 129 



[With View of Factory and Portrait of E. H. Garcin.] 



Official Statistics of India-Rubber and Gutta-Peroha 130 



(For the L'nited Stales Fiscal Year 1903-1904.] 



Gentsch's Artificial Gutta-Percha... I31 



Miscellaneous: 



.Meciiauically Attached Tires 107 



A Congo Rubber :ind .Mining Company .....'...!,,! Il.'i 



Advertising in the KubberCountry 116 



The Merits of "Fozelina," ',] ." 116 



A Woman in Search of Rubber ] U6 



The True History of a Western Kaim 116 



European Rubber Secrets ' " 121 



IiidiH-Kubber (ioods in Commerce 124 



The Horn Comb Industry '.'".'..'.. 128 



Rubber Regulations on the Congo .............. 136 



Amazon Stean« Navigation Co '.!'.'.!'!".!'." ISO 



News of the American Rubber Trade. 132 



Review of the Crude Rubber Market X36 



\\T F- have been asked to reconcile certain expressions 

 which have appeared in these columns, regarding 

 the narrowing limits of the natural supplies of India rub- 

 ber, with the fact that the consumption of the material 

 steadily increases This we do not regard as a difficult 

 task, if the various articles on the subject already printed 

 be read in their intended connection, one with another. 



During the past ten years the imports of raw rubber into 

 the United States have nearly doubled. If we use the of- 

 ficial customs returns, for the fiscal years ending June 30, 

 the comparison is as follows : 



Pounds, Pounds, 



1893-94 33.737.783 1903-04 59.o«5.65i 



Meanwhile the imports for consumption in other coun- 

 tries probably have increased at a corresponding rate. 

 How, then, can the rubber supply be said to show a de- 

 cline ? 



The rate of production has no/ shown a decline. But 

 that is not the question. The natural supplies of rubber^ 

 are no greater now than at any given date in the past. 

 The natural rubber area is no greater now than 50 years 

 ago. But meanwhile the yearly production of rubber has 

 increased a hundred fold. The point to be made is that 

 this rate of increase must sometime reach a limit. The 

 limit has already been reached in a great number of regions 

 which might be named. In The India Rubbfr World of 

 October i, 1902 (page 8), was presented a diagram show- 

 ing the steady growth of the rubber output of Colombia 

 from almost nothing, in 1860, to upwards of 7,000,000 

 pounds in 1873, from which time there was a rapid decline 

 to the present average of much less than 1,000,000 pounds 

 a year. In the last issue of this Journal it was shown that 

 the British colony of Lagos, in West Africa, exporting 5867 

 pounds of rubber in 1894, produced two years later nearly 

 6,500,000 pounds, since which time there had been a steady 

 falling off to 131,311 pounds in 1903 (the date of the latest 

 returns). The same experience is to be recorded from very 

 many other districts, for reasons which are indicated in a 

 contribution from Mr. Georg Waldau, on another page of 

 this issue. 



America has consumed millions of pounds of rubber ob- 

 tained from Africa, and produced by processes which en- 

 abled a full grown man to get together one pound of the 

 material by working a week on roots torn from the ground. 

 A second crop of roots was never obtainable in the same 

 area. The great bulk of the African rubber output to-day 

 is from lianes (creepers) which never yield a product but 

 once. All the rubber imported from South America under 

 the name of "Caucho" is obtained by cutting down the 

 trees which yield it. 



The fact that rubber has so long been obtainable is due 

 to the enormous original supply. But this supply has not 

 been increased, or even kept up to the original limits, by 

 any process of nature, and the rubber situation to day is 

 comparable to a private fortune of fixed limits, which is 

 diminished in proportion as its owner draws upon it. He 

 may spend twice as much this year as last, but this does 



