November 



1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER V/ORLD 



59 



JOTTINGS FROM MANAOS. 



TO THE Editor of The India Rubber World: The 

 managers of the leading buying houses in Manaos, who 

 have been interviewed by your correspondent, are mostly 

 averse to expressing opinions in regard to the size of the rub- 

 ber crop during the season lately begun. It appears custom- 

 ary, however, to declare that the crop will be very small. From 

 what can be gathered from captains of river steamers and from 

 other sources, it would appear that the rubber crop will proba- 

 bly be a little smaller than last year, and that much of it will be 

 marketed late. Last season's production, by the way, broke all 

 records. The rivers have risen to an exceptional height this 

 year, and the fall has been so slow that the greater part of the 

 lower Jurua and the Pun'is, all the lakes tributary to the Soli- 

 moes, the Madeira and Negro are still under water. Hence 

 the rubber gatherers have not gone to work on these rivers, 

 and probably will be unable to do so before November. 



The number of boats going up river this year is considerably 

 less than for several years past, owing to the financial crisis 

 from which the rubber centers have not yet recovered. Forty- 

 two steamers left Mandos during August for the Negro, Soli- 

 moes, Madeira, Puriis, Jurua, and the lower Amazon, against 

 sixty-three steamers for the same rivers in August last year. 

 Fairly good cargoes of rubber may be expected from the Jurud 

 and Madeira: a decline from the Puriis and Negro, and about 

 the same as usual from the Solimoes. The health of the rub- 

 ber regions is fairly good. 



There is likely to be little Caucho cut this year, and what is 

 gathered will be shipped as ball or strip. Advices from Peru 

 are that the Caucho is practically exhausted on the Puriis and 

 Jurud, but that new fields are being opened on the Casiquiare, 

 Tapaj6s,and Xingu. The new crop of Caucho on the Ucayali will 

 probably be cut next year, when it can be determined whether, 

 as the Indians claim, the new Caucho trees which spring up 

 from the roots of those cut down will yield a good quantity of 

 latex. 



New rubber fields have been discovered on the Jurud, but 

 the tree does not appear to be the Hevea, answering more near- 

 ly to the description which The India Rubber World has 

 given of the Mexican Castilloa. The rubber obtained is said to 

 be weak — i.e., to break easily on tension, but the captain of one 

 of the river steamers informs me that the sernamby (coarse) is 

 excellent, and even better than that obtained from the Hevea. 

 I hope to visit the new rubber fields in October and to send you 

 a fuller description of the same. 



Some of last year's product of Upriver rubber was of rather 

 poor quality, which, in the opinion of some, was due perhaps to 

 the fact that the floods last season were less extensive than 

 usual and rapidly subsided. It is held here that the longer the 

 rubber fields are under water in any year, the better will be the 

 quality of the rubber and the greater the amount obtained. If 

 there is anything in his theory it may be that the irrigation of 

 plantations may prove desirable where the same species of rub- 

 ber is cultivated. 



During August the receipts at Mandos included 741,902 kilo- 

 grams of rubber and 51,017 of Caucho, as against 783,775 and 

 67,062 kilograms, respectively, in August, 1901. The greater 

 part of the rubber was received from the Madeira and Puriis. 



Things are very quiet in the rubber market, fears, or hopes, 

 of a fall in exchange being freely expressed and the up coun- 

 try merchants awaiting developments. Stocks in Mandos con- 

 sist of 22 tons of fine and coarse. 



Several large land owners are considering seriously the ques- 

 tion of importing Chinese labor for rubber work, owing to the 



lack of sufficient native labor. [One obstacle to the importa- 

 tion of Chinese labor into the Brazilian rubber fields is pointed 

 out by Mr. Ashmore Russan in The India Rubber World of 

 October i — page 6.— The Editor.] 



It is believed that Balata {Mimusops) abounds along the Soli- 

 moes, Jutahy, and some other streams, and there is a revival of 

 talk of having these resources explored, but up to date the en- 

 terprise has not passed the talk stage. 



The Acre controversy continues to excite the passions of 

 everybody. An expedition has gone there with a view to 

 establishing the independence of that territory and later of 

 handing it over to Brazil. As long as the revolutionists re- 

 main in the mouth of the Acre no rubber can come out, and 

 naturally until the trouble is over the working of rubber gath- 

 ering will be paralyzed. I presume that you already know 

 that Minister Murtinho has closed the Amazon to the passage 

 of goods destined for Bolivia. 



The Associacao Commercial has been creating quite a furor 

 because the government, in leasing the state pier to the Mandos 

 Harbour, Limited, required that all rubber shipped from 

 Mandos be boxed in the warehouses appertaining thereto. The 

 governor refused to pay any attention to its complaints, where- 

 upon the association declared war against the Booth line of 

 steamers, because Alfred Booth is a director in the Mandos 

 Harbour, Limited. Work has already been begun on the port 

 improvements, including the construction of the huge ware- 

 house for the reception of rubber. 



The Brazilian federal government at last has decided to as- 

 sist agricultural effort and oflfers to supply seed of Hevea, 

 manigoba (Ceara rubber), cotton, etc., to anyone who, being a 

 bona fide land owner and planter, applies to the minister of in- 

 dustry. Several residents of the Autaz district of the Madeira 

 are beginning to plant rubber. In Anatay exists a plantation 

 of 3000 Heveas, and in Bocapeguena one of 2000. A man in 

 Cai^ana, on the Solimoes, has planted 800 manigobas and 1000 

 Heveas. 



R. Mardock evidently has resigned as manager of the Ama- 

 zon Telegraph Co., Limited, as he is seeking a state subvention 

 for a wireless telegraphy system between Pard and Mandos, 

 Meanwhile a representative of Marconi is on the ground, 

 threatening an action for infringement. On the i6th, Mardock 

 and C. H. Anchas(an American) gave a dinner to the governor, 

 the members of congress, and the press, during which a wireless 

 message was dispatched across the rio Negro. The message 

 was not received on the other side, because — the receiver had 

 burnt out. lvonel garnier. 



ManSos, Brazil, September 20, 1902. 



RUBBER RECEIPTS AT MANAOS. 

 During the first three months of the crop season — July i to 

 September 30 — and compared with former years : 



From — 1902. igoi. 1900. 



Rio Purus tons 768 880 695 



Rio Madeira 734 594 699 



Rio Jurua 231 304 189 



Rio Javary — Iquitos 155 r55 34 



Rio SolimOes 163 257 loS 



Rio Negro 65 16 I 



Total 2116 2206 1723 



Caucho 259 391 292 



Total 2375 2597 2015 



Letters received by the trade at New York predict that sev- 

 eral thousand tons of rubber will be delayed in transit from 

 Bolivia this year, in order to avoid the payment of double ex- 

 port duties— to Bolivia and Brazil— which accumulation may 

 be a disturbing factor in the market all season. 



