April i, 1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER "WORLD 



213 



restore confidence, but the small-pox on the Jurud and a spur 

 of energy on the part of the police, who arrested some twenty 

 of the biggest Rubber cutters — men each with 200 or 300 ser- 

 itiguieros in their employ^for murder, somewhat upset the 

 wholesale houses in ManSos. As a protective measure, they 

 stopped all credit business, with the inevitable consequence 

 that half the rubber paths are unworked, and seem likely to 

 remain so. Rubber gathering has not only been curtailed, but 

 absolutely paralyzed in some parts, as, for instance, on the 

 Autaz, Pauinhy, and Caqueta, each of which had some 2000 

 Rubber gatherers at work two years ago, while during the 

 present season all three rivers could not muster a hundred. 

 Just now there is little doing, as the rubber season is practi- 

 cally over for the upper Amazon. 



As to exhaustion, Caucho is done for, as far as the upper 

 Amazon is concerned, and there is very little left in Bolivia or 

 in Peru. There still exist, however, immense tracts of Caucho- 

 bearing land in Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, and in 

 Matto Grosso (Brazil). Rubber, too, is gradually being ex- 

 hausted, and in my opinion, unless serious steps are taken by 

 the government to protect the Rubber trees, in another twenty 

 years it will be all over with the Rubber industry in Amazonas. 



You may expect to hear shortly of considerable tracts of rub- 

 ber producing country in Colombia being opened up. I refer 

 to the Pulumayo or fja river district, which has a potential 

 of 1300 tons of Rubber per annum, not counting Caucho or 

 Balata, in the parts already explored, although in consequence 

 of international squabbling it is not yet opened out. Then 

 there are enormous tracts of Rubber on the Alto Maraonii 

 which, however, will not be of commercial importance for many 

 years, on account of the Indians. 



Apropos of a note in the January i issue, of The India Rub- 

 RER World, headed " Is There Balata in Brazil ?" perhaps it 

 would interest you to know that on the rio Patro, one of the 

 affluents of the Alto Marafion, in Peru, there exist enormous 

 tracts of Balata, practically virgin. This I know from exper- 

 ience, having commanded a primitive expedition against the 

 Uambizi Indians, in those regions, in 1898. I brought down 

 some of the Balata gum, and also some of the leaves, etc. The 

 rubber brokers at Manaos and Iquitos wouldn't look at it, so I 

 sent it to Antwerp to a friend who sold it (some 200 kilograms) 

 at, I think, 4 francs per kilo. The leaves I sent to Professor 

 Goeldi, of Para, who identified it with the Mimusops balata, of 

 which there is, I believe, a specimen in the botanical garden at 

 Para. I think, therefore, that it is very likely to exist on the 

 Pard-Braganja railway, as the rule here is that if you find a 

 plant in one part of the country, you will find it in all. 



In connection with the letter of Mr. A. J. Scott in The 

 India Rubber World for January [page 118], it may interest 

 you to know that by a certain process much in use in Bolivia 

 and Peru, it is possible to obtain from two to three arrobas 

 (of 25 pounds) of Caucho from each tree. Therefore it is not 

 impossible that an especially large and old tree should yield 



100 pounds. LYONEL GARNIER. 



Man5os, Brazil, February 9, 1902. 



DR. HUBER ON THE YIELD OF CAUCHO. 



Writing on Caucho, Dr. Jacques Huber, chief of the botani- 

 cal section of the Paid museum, in the Boletim of that institu- 

 tion, says [Vol. III., No. i. February, 1900 — page 84], after de- 

 scribing the receptacles in which the latex is collected, when 

 the trees are cut down : 



" A grown-up tree yields as a rule one such vessel full of 

 latex, which contains 14 gallons, or 56 liters. This quantity 

 corresponds with 20 kilograms of Caucho in slabs {planchas), 

 and as one slab weighs generally about 4 arrobas (=60 kilos, 



or one man's load), it takes three trees to make one slab. But 

 there are trees of exceptional size, furnishing much more latex. 

 I have heard from one Cauchero worthy of confidence, that one 

 of his workmen came back some day from an excursion in the 

 woods saying he had discovered the madre del caucho (the 

 mother of Caucho). It was a Rubber tree of extraordinary 

 dimensions which the superstitious native did not dare to tap, 

 because it seemed the ' mother of Caucho.' Finally, when a 

 group of laborers set to work at it, said tree did not yield less 

 than 7 arrobas, which is 105 kilos [ = 231 pounds] of Caucho." 



BALATA TRADE IN EUROPE. 



THE recent trial of a suit, at Glasgow, Scotland, over a dis- 

 puted contract for the delivery of Balata, elicited some 

 details of interest respecting the Balata trade. The plaintiffs, 

 F. R. Muller & Co., stated that they had been dealing in Balata 

 for eight years, during which time they had purchased upwards 

 of /i 50,000 worth from the defendants, Weber & Schaer, 

 ot Hamburg. The contract in dispute covered 140 tons, for 

 delivery between July, 1899, and April, 1900, amounting to 

 /21.812 i8,y. Plaintiffs supplied R. & J. Dick, India-rubber 

 manufacturers of Glasgow, with the Balata used in the belt- 

 ing manufactured by the latter, though they stated that they 

 had other customers for Balata. A member of the defendant 

 firm testified that the Messrs. Dick used more Balata than all 

 the other firms in Great Britain. A representative of the 

 Messrs. Dick testified that they also made purchases through 

 London brokers, besides buying from Muller & Co. 



There are three principal importers of Balata at Hamburg, 

 'where there are arrivals twice a month. There are four lead- 

 ing brokers in Balata in London, in whose hands the material 

 is placed as received by various importers. There are occa- 

 sional sales at auction. There is also a market for Balata in 

 Amsterdam. The principal production is in Venezuela, the 

 output going by steamers calling at Southampton, London, 

 Amsterdam, and Hamburg ; it is in the option of the importer 

 to land his goods at any one of these ports, according as the 

 market appears more favorable at one or another. Mr. Weber, 

 of the defendants, testified that the Balata business was largely 

 speculative ; there is not a free market for the article ; the at- 

 tempt to purchase, say 45 tons, in the open market would at 

 times set up prices very much and at times not at all, according 

 to the size of stocks held. Another witness stated that the 

 bulk of the business was done before the Balata arrived. 



A member of Price, Hickman & Co. (London brokers) testi- 

 fied that probably 1000 tons of Balata came to London yearly. 

 The limitation of the production made it liable to considerable 

 fluctuation. During twenty years the range of prices had been 

 from \s. 2d. to 2s. dd. per pound. There had been an advance 

 from u. 5(/. in August, 1899, to \s. gd. in February, 1900. In 

 August of that year 2s. \%d. was reached, with a fall to \s. 8d. 

 in October. The price in Continental ports was usually i^d. 

 higher. A member of Henry Kiver & Co. (London) had known 

 of sales as high as 2s. 8d. The judicious way to buy, he said, 

 was in small lots, since the price would naturally go up when 

 the market came to know of a large quantity being wanted. 



F. R. Muller, Jr., London manager for the plaintiflf firm, said 

 that the rise in Balata between 1899 and 1900 was due to scar- 

 city of the article. He said that a market for Balata always 

 existed in London ; there was at least one transaction carried 

 through every week, apart from private transactions. 



A shrinkage of about 4 per cent, during shipment from Ven- 

 ezuela was mentioned. The usual brokerage commission in 

 London is i per cent, and occasionally '/z per cent. 



