Jri.v I, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



331 





SIM IRON S RUBBE i PLANTATION. 



a genial old gentleman from Virginia by the name ol Sim Iron. 

 He runs his place himself and has about 17,000 trees between 

 three and lour years old. Ilis ranch houses were more pictur- 

 esque than those o( the Manhattan in that they were palm 

 thatched and built largely in the native fashion. During a part 

 of the year the old gentleman has his wife on the place with 

 him and they seem as happy and healihy as if they were run- 

 ning a farm in a northern clime. 



After looking over the Sim Iron plantation we visited "' Day- 

 tonia," now the " Rubber Grove " plantation, where were some 

 very good trees, although it was explained that the man who 

 started the plantation sold something like $200,000 of stock 

 and spent only $30,000 in planting. He was later prosecuted 

 for fraud and was sent to jail in some one of the United States. 

 The plantation was then taken over by a local company who 

 are getting it into good shape. 



After leaving Daytonia we visited some small private planta- 

 tions, all of Oistilloa, which looked e-xcellenily. Then we re- 

 turned to the Manhattan house for noon breakfast, and in the 

 afternoon walked across lots to look at the rubber on the Cukia 

 plantation. Just as we got there our first real shower came 

 down. That was not any spring rain ; it was more like a cloud- 

 burst, and kept us penned in the house for nearly an hour. Ii 

 cleared off. however, as suddenly as it came on and then we 

 began to e.xamine the interesting experiments that were being 

 carried on by Mr. Waldron. 



He had already begun tapping some of his six year old trees 

 and close to the house where we had taken refuge from the 

 shower was his coagulating and drying house. In this house 

 were galvanized iron cans holding half a barrel, each filled 

 with la/ex mixed with water and formaldehyde, while from the 

 ceiling hung long strips of rubber being air dried. Mr. Wald- 

 ron used the formaldehyde to keep the latex from coagulating 

 too soon, and washed out the vegetable acids and the albumen 

 by diluting the la/fx and creaming it. He found some difficul- 

 ty in coagulating, and had, therefore, fitted up a couple of 

 caldrons close to the house and was boiling the lattx. The 

 rubber appeared to be very clean, but a little short. Indeed 



Mr. Waldron acknowledged that he thought it was coalesced 

 in^tcad of coagulated. 



Fiom the coagulating house we walked down through the 

 I libber orchard to the trees that were then being tapped. This 

 work was done very carefully and in the most cleanly wgy, the 

 liitfv being caught in tin cups of which there were three tows 

 on each tree tapped, making 12 cups to the tree. After the 

 milk had stopped flowing and the cups had been emptied, a 

 native was sent around with a spoon to take otT the thick 

 ereamlike exudation that gathered in the cuts. As this was 

 lakcn olT before coagulation, it went into solution with (he 



I'st of the AjAm without any trouble. Mr. Waldron was get- 

 ting three ounces of dry rubber from each tree and was plan- 

 ning to tap them a number of times during the year. He 

 '.liked of tapping by team woik through the whole of the dry 



easiin.and during the wet season to skip only a roiiple of 

 weeks during the torrential rains. 



We tried the Ceylon tool, but it difln't seem any better than 

 the ordinary knife for this woik. The general manager of 

 Cukra, although very much of an iconoclast, and not in the 

 habit of following other peoples' lead, acknowledged that 

 inurh ol his tapping and coagulating was only experimental 

 mil that he expected befoic long to work down to a simpler 

 Hid more practical system. At the same time, he claimed that, 

 cumbersome as his present process was, it proved most thor- 

 oughly the profitableness of rubber planting. 



During the rest of our stay on this group of plantations we 

 made our headiiuarlcrs at Manhattan, riding out in various di- 

 rections and examining the rubber and discussing it with the 

 various planteis, who were much interested in making a success 

 of it. There are in the vicinity, at a conservative estimate, 

 about 400,000 cultivated Cas/illoa trees, the laigest single plan- 

 tation being the " Canada " plantation, of which Mr. Waldron is 

 manager and chief owner. This plantation has about 200000 



IN THE SHADE OF A RUBBER TREE. 



(.SaiiKil from riRlil to left: Sim Iron, S. \V. Siniiaik. I. ,\. IIkianuhr. 



iiAiii.its II. Arnoi 1), AinmiK F. Townsknu. I lie Coult, IIknkv C. Pkakson.J 



