322 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July 



1902. 



nect with the paint reservoir, and from 20 to 25 feet of Yz inch 

 delivery hose. The machine then being charged with air, the 

 operator guides the discharge on the surface to be coated, and 

 the liquid is formed into a filmy, misty spray, which reaches 

 every part of the surface to be covered, including nooks and 

 crevices. Various companies making these machinese offer 

 also paints and whitewashes specialy prepared for use with 

 them, or formulas for making the same. One of the items of 

 rubber in connection with the painting machine is a plunger 

 ring for the compressed air apparatus, the importance of hav- 

 ing which of good quality is strongly emphasized. Usually, 

 these machines have their own compressed air apparatus, but 

 they may be adapted for the use in plants which already have 

 a compressed air system installed. 



VIEWS OF A MANAOS RUBBER MERCHANT. 



DURING a recent visit to New York of Mr. N. H. Witt, a 

 leadmg rubber merchant of Mandos, the rubber center 

 of the upper Amazon, he was asked by The India Rubber 

 World for his views on the practicability of companies being 

 organized to work on a large scale in the movement of rub- 

 ber direct from the producing districts to the consuming 

 markets. 



" I do not believe that such a thing can be done as yet," said 

 he. " Not that I profess to know more about the subject than 

 any one can know who has spent several years in the rubber 

 trade on the Amazon, and who has felt an interest in every- 

 thing that has gone on around him pertaining to rubber. My 

 own business is that of buying and selling rubber along the 

 lines of established custom. But I have seen nothing that 

 would lead me to take an interest personally in such an under- 

 taking as you suggest. And I have seen not a few failures. 



" There was, for instance, the Comptoir Colonial Franfais, 

 which lately went into bankruptcy in Paris, after losing about 

 $2,000,000 in a little more than a year's trading in rubber on 

 the Amazon. These companies, starting without any knowl- 

 edge of conditions in the rubber countries, send out managers 

 who feel self confident and who are not disposed to learn any- 

 thing from persons who have been longer on the ground and 

 have gained, perhaps by painful and costly experience, some 

 knowledge of the facts which have to be dealt with. 



" The difficulty of the labor problem is an old story which 

 continues to be repeated. In the Amazon valley all the labor 

 must be imported, together with provisions. Whether the 

 trouble is less in this regard in Bolivia, where there are Indians 

 in the rubber forests who can be induced to work, I do not 

 know. But even there there are no provisions on the ground, 

 and on the Beni I understand that the proprietors of rubber 

 camps are obliged to import a good quantity of food products. 

 If it is suggested that farm laborers be colonized to cultivate 

 crops for food supplies, I can only ask who is going to do the 

 colonizing, and where are the colonists to come from ? The 

 native population will prefer to lead the lives that they have 

 been accustomed to and will be next to impossible to control 

 by foreigners who do not understand their ways. If they are 

 able to earn as much at cultivating beans and farina as they 

 can at cutting rubber, the crops which they grow will not be 

 cheaper than imported food. There are no European peoples 

 who can stand working in the climate of the Amazon valley. 

 Something might be done with coolies, but it is a difficult mat- 

 ter to arrange with the government of British India for their 

 introduction into South America. There has been talk of im- 

 porting Chinese, but they would likely all turn traders and 

 desert the rubber camps. 



" I am convinced, therefore, that for a good while to come 

 the safest way to deal in rubber is through the establishment 

 of trading houses at the principal centers, as at present, and 

 buying such rubber as may reach the market, from whatever 

 source." 



In answer to a question as to whether the existing rubber 

 fields on the Amazon were showing indications of becoming 

 exhausted, Mr. Witt said : 



"All the fields which yield rubber other than Caucho still 

 seem to produce the usual output. It is probable, however, 

 that in some districts on the lower Amazon the trees have 

 ceased to yield, and the fact that more rubber has been shipped 

 this season from the state of Para than last season may be due 

 to the fact that the rubber workers have gone into new terri- 

 tory. In some cases, the men may have worked harder, as we 

 call it, forced by the low rubber prices ruling now. The in- 

 creasing total production of the Amazon valley is due, of course, 

 to the general widening of the district gone over in the search 

 for rubber. 



"One thing which indicates that the trees in the districts 

 which have longest been worked are becoming less productive, 

 is a fact that the rate of shrinkage in the Islands rubber re- 

 ceived at Para gradually becomes greater. I remember that in 

 1885, a shrinkage of 6 percent, was expected in Islands rubber, 

 and the rate has gradually increased until now a shrinkage of 14 

 per cent., or even more, is not unusual. And meanwhile there 

 has been no important improvement in means of transportation 

 between the Islands districts and Pard. Evidently, there is a 

 smaller percentage of solid rubber in the milk than when the 

 trees were fresher, and with the same amount of smoking as 

 formerly more moisture is retained in the rubber to be lost dur- 

 ing shipment. In other words, while the trees apparently yield 

 as much milk as formerly, the real production of rubber per 

 tree is less." 



Mr. Witt spoke of the rapid exhaustion of Caucho in all the 

 districts where the Peruvians went in search of it, and it was 

 his impression that the trade of Iquitos, largely based upon 

 Caucho, was not, for this reason, showing any increase. There 

 was a possibility, however, that with the total exhaustion of 

 Caucho on the upper Amazon — say within the next ten years — 

 the Peruvians might turn their attention to gathering fine 

 rubber, and thus replace in a measure the Caucho trade. 



In regard to cable communication between Pari and Mandos, 

 Mr. Witt said that great inconvenience to trade resulted at the 

 latter place from the frequent interruptions. With the con- 

 stant fluctuations in exchange, there was constant risk in busi- 

 ness transactions conducted up the river without a knowledge 

 of conditions at Para and in rubber markets elsewhere. With 

 adequate cable facilities, he thought that Mandos would be- 

 come an even more important center of the rubber trade. In 

 such an event, all the rubber from the upper Amazon and its 

 tributaries would naturally find its way to Manaos, even with- 

 out the aid of such a law as has been put in force for this pur- 

 pose in the state of Amazonas. It is believed now, however, 

 that the English company owning the cable is making some 

 improvements, and it is possible that such a course will give a 

 much more efficient service. 



Sailor Nicks, known as the champion rope slider of the 

 world, has developed a new use for garden hose. His spec- 

 ialty, by the way, is to slide from a captive balloon, 1500 feet 

 above the earth, down a 1"% inch rope to the ground. In order 

 to do this comfortably, he has a section of garden hose, ten 

 inches long, slit up on one side, which fits snugly over the rope 

 and which he uses as a brake in his long slide to the ground. 



