40 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1902. 



THE RUBBER GOODS TRADE IN GERMANY. 



[from the " GUMMI-ZEITUNG," DRESDEN.] 



THE situation of the rubber goods dealer in Germany to- 

 day is not one to be envied. With keen competiiion on 

 the one hand and a market that has halted in its advance, and 

 even receded, on the other hand, it is no wonder that complaints 

 are becoming more numerous. Viewing trade conditions in 

 general, the rubber branch is not the only one which has cause 

 for complaint; indeed, it has fared better than some other 

 branches of the industry which depend upon the consumption 

 of articles of luxury, and even of necessity, of the public at 

 large. 



The general condition of trade is anything but favorable. 

 The hope entertained at the beginning of the year, that the 

 lowest point had been touched and that an advance was about 

 to be seen, has come to naught. The painful reaction of the 

 losses of the general public, and most unfavorable weather con- 

 ditions, have created a depression which, in certain branches, 

 approaches apathy. The condition of business for months has 

 been a dragging one and complaints are heard in every direc- 

 tion of slow payments, scarcity of cash, and the unreliability of 

 commercial paper. That the rubber business is bound to be af- 

 fected by this general condition is self evident, but a certain 

 advantage in this branch is that the majority of rubber articles 

 produced are a necessity. It is for this reason that the com- 

 plaints from retail dealers in surgical and hygienic goods are 

 less frequent than those related to the technical branches, 

 where the depression has become most marked. Of course, at 

 such times many complaints uttered may be dismissed with 

 slight consideration, since some persons seem to feel themselves 

 in duty bound to join in a general lamentation, even when no 

 individual cause for it exists. 



If competition would only refrain from working forever to 

 depress prices ! There are other means remaining to obtain 

 trade. This, no doubt, is felt by every sound dealer, and yet if 

 the circumstances are such that there is danger of losing a cus- 

 tomer it is not easy to resist the temptation to cut prices, even 

 to a point which renders a profit impossible. There is here what 

 amounts to an utter lack of principle in trade. The desire to 

 grasp every chance of doing business, and to let nothing escape 

 or go into the hands of one's competitors even if at a loss, is 

 what inflicts the deepest wounds in the rubber goods trade, and 

 makes conditions worse than they should be even under the 

 prevailing unfavorable state of trade. 



The offers of goods now exceed the wants, and inclination to 

 buy is lacking. But do conditions drive the people, or are the 

 latter responsible for causing and shaping conditions ? Does 

 the business world intend to rest on the standpoint of fatalism 

 — to suffer everything and await in indolence the solution of 

 the existing conditions? That point we hope has not been 

 reached, but if it should be so then, of course, " All hope aban- 

 don ye who enter here." We believe that yet man can influence 

 and frame conditions, and there is none so powerful but that 

 with energy and confidence it can be overcome. And, there- 

 fore, it is timely to counsel the rubber goods dealers to exhibit 

 a little more courage and self reliance, a little more character 

 and principle in business, and then matters will mend, slowly 

 perhaps, but surely. 



The first stand to be made must be against price cutting and 

 the lowering of quality, and consumers must be made to un- 

 derstand that rubber goods are articles of trust and that the 

 cheapest purchase is generally the dearest in the end. With 

 patience and perseverance consumers can be made to see 

 their own advantage. The cuitins^ of prices will never build 



up a lasting busmess ; the trade will revert finally to conser- 

 vative dealers and the less these recede from sound trade prin- 

 ciples, the more loyal their clientage will be and the more 

 difficult for competition to draw it from them. Firmness and 

 character create confidence everywhere. The rubber goods 

 trade was formerly renowned for its solidity, and so it should 

 be now. Though transactions may fall oflf for the time being, 

 that does not decide the value of a business, but the relation 

 of profits to sales does. Every business man irreparably in- 

 jures himself when he swells his sales at the cost of his profits. 

 To be affable and obliging in all transactions should never be 

 overlooked, but none the less the merchant should firmly re- 

 fuse every transaction which does not guarantee the mmimum 

 fixed rate of profit. The competition which works on an un- 

 sound foundation, closing d tout prix, and continually intro- 

 duces goods of lower quality, must finally run its course and 

 be swept aside. 



It is imperative, therefore, for every sound business man to 

 plant himself, during such conditions as now prevail, so firmly 

 as to be able to be prepared for the time of prosperity which 

 is certain to come. Two things in the rubber goods trade to 

 be held in the highest esteem are price and quality, and this is 

 true to-day, perhaps, more than ever before. 



TREATMENT OF " FICUS ELASTICA." 



THE proper treatment of young " rambong " rubber {Ficus 

 elastica — the rubber of Assam) is a matter upon which 

 planters are not yet agreed. Mr. E. V. Carey, of Klang. Selangor, 

 writes in the S\.t&\is Agricultural Bulletin, that his plantation of 

 this variety, at the age of three years, contains many trees 25 feet 

 in height, with a spread of about 30 feet in diameter, the fol- 

 iage being almost impenetrably dense and reaching right down 

 to, and in some cases, spreading out along the ground. The 

 soil is the richest drained alluvial, the trees being apparently 

 much more at home in it than on the hills, where the growth is 

 very much slower, and nothing like the same quantity ol leaf is 

 to be seen. It has been regarded by some as proper to lop 

 " rambong " trees when young and keep them to a single stem, 

 plus one or two sturdy aerial roots, but Mr. Carey thinks that 

 such pruning gives the trees too great a shock. On his own 

 plantation, on forcing his way under the trees, he finds them 

 to be "casting" numbers of both branches and aerial roots, as 

 if these had been smothered by the dense shade and had rotted 

 off naturally. It is obvious to him that the trees are healthy 

 and that this falling off of the branches is natural and not a re- 

 sult of disease. " It is my belief," he adds, " that we shall have 

 an infinitely bigger tapping area to work upon, when we once 

 get to work in earnest, than if we had trimmed our stems up ; 

 whether the latex will be as rich in caoutchouc, when collected 

 from the thick branches as well as the aerial roots and stem, 

 remains to be seen, but I am sure the yield must be far heavier." 

 One of Mr. Carey's trees, four years old, tapped on two suc- 

 cessive days, yielded ^ pound of dry scrap rubber. On the 

 third day the flow of latex was so scant that the tree was left 

 alone, but he thought that the treatment could be repeated 

 within a month. F. A Calloway, also of Klang, reports in 



the Agricultural Bulletin the tapping of a Ficus elastica at the 

 age of 4 years and imonth,theyieldheing5ouncesihefirst time 

 and 2J^ ounces the second. He expects a yield of >^ a pound 

 per tree in the sixth year. R. C. N. Kindersiey. of the Inch 

 Kenneth estate, Kajang, Selangor, informs the Straits Agricul- 

 tural Bulletin that five Para rubber trees, six years old, tapped 

 for fifteen consecutive days in January last, on the " herring 

 bone " system yielded an average of 1 pound 2 ounces per tree 



