48 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1902. 



After a time the substance is in readiness to shape into loaves, 

 and this is done by the natives in several ways, the best I saw 

 being the rolling of the gum into thin sheets, the weight de- 

 sired, and then cutting through with knives made for the pur- 

 pose. A white powder substance is scattered over the surfaces 

 of the gum while this is going on, so that the natives can handle 

 the stock without danger of the fingers adhering to and soiling 

 the matter. 



They have a process of kneading, which is used in connection 

 with the finer grades of gums, and this device for accomplish- 

 ing the work is shown in Fig. 5. It is a crude bit of work, as 

 shown, involving the use of a tree stump or section, which is 

 chipped out in the middle to form the oval depression in which 

 the round-nosed instrument of hard wood can be turned by 

 manual labor. The particles of the Chicle are granulated in 

 this trough, beneath the weight and Irictional surface contact 

 of the rounded device. 



In Fig. 6 is shown one of the strange devices employed by 

 the Moro Chicle workers for mixing and working the material. 

 This contrivance is made with stone, heavily erected, so as to 

 make the walls firm, and the interior is coated with a cement- 

 like surfacing, which results in the smoothing and rounding ofl 



of the tub. Inside this tub sets the upright post, c, in which there 

 are projecting arms of wood, as shown. This affair is revolved 

 by a belt passing from wheel a to wheel b, on the shaft. Man- 

 ual or water power is usually employed to give the necessary 

 turning movement to the gearing, a. I saw several devices like 

 this, but in most cases they were out of order and unfit for ser- 

 vice. The gums here, when finished, lack the flavors employed 

 by American makers. The only flavors utilized are such as can 

 be procured readily. 



Costly wintergreen, for example, is not known here. Malt, 

 mint, etc., however, are used. The natives chew the gum to 

 quench thirst. They use it much as they use the tooth staining 

 beetle nut. 



As to packing for transportation, you can see that the pack- 

 ages are put up in the form like Fig. 7, as a rule. The sub- 

 stance is rolled up in mats, into various packages, and three or 

 four of these packages are tied up together, as in the view. 

 The writer is inclined to believe that there is money in the 

 Chicle industry of Mindanao for capitalists. The gum materi- 

 als can be purchased from the natives very cheaply, and at the 

 seaports, where the stocks can be properly packed for export. 



Mindanao, Philippines, July 17, 1902. 



AMERICAN CAPITAL IN RUBBER EXPLOITATION. 



IN addition to the investment of capital in the Uuited 

 States in the forming of rubber plantations in -Mexico 

 and Central America, which has been reported in consid- 

 erable detail in The India Rubber World during sev- 

 eral years past, there is now evident a new branch of interest 

 in rubber, namely, investments in enterprises for the exploita- 

 tion of rubber in the tropics. Several such companies are re- 

 ferred to below. The largest of the various enterprises — formed 

 to operate in Venezuela — is now mentioned in these pages for 

 the first time. 



PARA RUBBER PLANTATION CO. 



The Pard Rubber Plantation Co. has been formed for the 

 purpose of trading in crude rubber on a large scale in Vene- 

 zuela, on lines somewhat different from those any large company 

 previously organized. The company begins with the owner- 

 ship of a tract of land about 8 miles wide, lying on both sides 

 of the Casiquiare river for its whole length of 175 miles, com- 

 prising about 1400 square miles of territory, or nearly 1,000,- 

 000 acres. The Casiquiare is a stream navigable at all sea- 

 sons, connecting the Orinoco with the Rio Negro, the latter of 

 which empties into the Amazon a few miles below the city of 

 Mandos. The Negro is navigable up to the Casiquiare, as al- 

 so is the Orinoco, with the exception of about 30 miles obstruct- 

 ed by cataracts above San Fernando, in Venezuela. For the 

 present the company's property will be reached by way of 

 Manaos, and that city will be the basis of the company's oper- 

 ations. It has been suggested that by means of a narrow 

 gage railway around the falls shipments could be made on 

 the Orinoco more economically than in the other direction, 

 but such railway has not yet been projected. In spite of its 

 name, the new company is to be in no sense a rubber plant- 

 ing enterprise. 



Reports made on this territory, which have led to the or- 

 ganization of the company, are that it contains rubber trees 

 in abundance of more than one species of Hevea, and that 

 these trees, for the most part, have not been worked. The 

 Casiquiare river does not overflow at any time, and the re- 

 gion is declared to be more healthful, for this and some 



other reasons, than much of the country that has been ex- 

 plored for rubber in the Amazon valley. The population is 

 mainly of Indians, who are more docile than in some other 

 regions of Venezuela and in portions of Colombia where rub- 

 ber workers have been attacked by the natives. For years 

 some rubber from southwestern Venezuela has found its way 

 down the Negro to Manaos, going into the markets as Para 

 rubbet, but without any adequate statistics of the quantity. 

 A certain amount also from the upper Orinoco has gone down 

 that stream, being marketed as " Angostura " fine and coar^e^ 



PROPERTY 



(IK 11 Hi 



PARA RUBBER 

 PLANTATION CO. 



(The shaded portion of the map indicates the tract owned by ilie Par.i Rubber 

 IMantation Co. — three miles in width on one side of the Casiijuiare and five miles 

 on the other. The arrows indicate the direction of the current of the Orinoco, 

 which discharges into the Atlantic, and of the Negro, which joins the Ama;ron 

 river below the city of Manaos,] 



