116 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1903. 



planted to date are too young to yield rubber, such trees as 

 have become productive seem to have given such satisfactory 

 results as to encourage more extensive planting. 



RUBBER IN FORMOSA. 

 Rubber trees are supposed to exist on the island of For- 

 mosa, which was acquired by Japan from China as a result of 

 the war between those countries a few years ago. In fact, there 

 is some definite evidence on this point. For example, the 

 United States consul general at Calcutta, Mr. Samuel N4erritt, 

 reported in 1890 that Major J. A. Betts, "while an officer in 

 the Chinese army, explored the large islands of Formosa and 

 Hainan, and found the forests filled with untouched/^/V?« elas- 

 tica." Mr. Shizuo Kondo, of Tokio, informs The India Rub- 

 ber World that, in connection with the building up of a rub- 

 ber industry in Japan, much interest is felt now in the possi- 

 bility of obtaining rubber in Japanese territory. " The 

 systematic study of the resources of Formosa is now being 

 carried on by our government," says Mr. Kondo, " very much 

 as the United States is doing in the Philippines, and we hope 

 to find rubber there to an important f xtent." 



RESULT OF TAPPING YOUNG TREES. 

 Dr. Walter L. Hall, of San Juan Evangelista, Vera Cruz, 

 Mexico, writes to Modern Mexico that 400 rubber trees {Castil- 

 loa elastica) on his plantation 3^4 and ^% years old (as they 

 came), tapped by a native with a inac/ie/e. gave 44 pounds of dry 

 rubber, or about i^ ounces per tree. Thirty trees 4^ years 

 old tapped in the same way gave 2 ounces per tree. Fifty trees 

 y/z years old gave i !s ounces per tree. A wild tree 15 inches 

 in diameter yielded 2}4 gallons of latex, which made 8 pounds 

 2 ounces of dry rubber without injury to the tree. Dr. Hall 

 says that the quality of the rubber appears to be the same, 

 whether the la/ex is coagulated with " amole " or by simply 

 drying, but the former is more expeditious. He says that the 

 best time for tapping is from November to February. 



MEXICAN MUTUAL PLANTERS' CO. 

 [Plantation: La Junta, state of Vera Cruz. Offices; New York Life building. 

 Chicago.] 



No. 9 of The La Junta Planter (the company's bulletin) 

 states that the whole of the issue of the bonds ofTered to the 

 public— 3700 — has been sold, 30 per cent, of them having been 

 talcen by the shareholders. The bondholders' committee of 

 investigation will leave Chicago for the plantation in February. 

 Two-thirds of the area designed for rubber has been planted, 

 now embracing over 1,000,000 trees. The company state : " We 

 are often asked at what age we can safely tap rubber trees. We 

 are of the opinion that size and maturity of the wood, not the 

 age. will regulate the tapping period, and that while an occa- 

 sional tree five years of age and a large number at eight years, 

 grown in the sun, may be safely tapped, few that are planted in 

 shade will be large enough to tap in fifteen years, some not for 

 twenty-five years, and many will not attain sufficient growth in 

 a generation." 



EDUCATING MEXICAN INDIANS TO WORK. 

 Mr. Fred L. Torres, of the executive staflf of the Consoli- 

 dated Ubero Plantations Co., engaged in rubber culture on the 

 isthmus of Tehuantepec, says that the most important induce- 

 ment to labor which he has found for the native Indians — their 

 main dependence for plantation work — is the company's store. 

 When the Ubero companies began operations, the natives in 

 that district still dressed in primitive style, and had no wants 

 beyond their daily food. But the display in the store of gaily 

 colored clothing, ornaments, and trinkets has developed among 

 the natives a desire for those things, and now both men and 

 women willingly work full time in order to gratify tastes to 



which, a few years ago, they were strangers. The constant new 

 developments on the isthmus, Mr. Torres says, will ere long 

 call for more than the native supply of labor, when it is antici- 

 pated that Chinese can be imported to meet every want. 



PRIVATE RUBBER PLANTING IN MEXICO. 

 The newspaper Modern Mexico believes that "the best evi- 

 dence that cultivating rubber will become a profitable business 

 in Mexico is not the number of companies that have been 

 formed in the United States to plant rubber, but the num- 

 ber of intelligent men in Mexico, who, after careful and per- 

 sonal investigation of the subject, have gone to planting rubber 

 on their own account. These men who buy land and quietly 

 set to work to cultivate the rubber tree are fully convinced that 

 it will produce gum in quantities that will pay handsomely. 

 They have no stock to sell, and they would deceive no one but 

 themselves by putting their money into rubber. They do not 

 expect to make a thousand dollars per acre from their invest- 

 ment, but they do expect it to yield handsome returns, or they 

 would not be living in the tropics with all the attendant dis- 

 comforts for one of a northern race." 



THE CENTRAL CAUCHO CO. OF CUBA. 

 This company was incorporated on December 8, under Del- 

 aware laws, with $100,000 capital, for the purpose of planting 

 rubber in Cuba. The interests which have formed the com- 

 pany, including The George W. Ireland Land Co. of Cuba 

 (Philadelphia), own 16,000 acres, to be devoted to the plan- 

 tation. There are now growing in nurseries in Cuba a num- 

 ber of Hevea rubber plants from 12 to 18 months old from seed 

 from trees brought from Brazil a number of years ago, and 

 which have been tapped frequently, yielding rubber of such 

 quality as to encourage the formation of the planting company 

 here referred to. The officers are : George W. Ireland, No. 

 ion Chestnut street, Philadelphia, president; J. D. Milligan, 

 of Youngstown, Ohio, vice president ; R. E. Hollingsworth, 

 No. 22 Mercaderas street, Havana, secretary and treasurer. Mr. 

 Ireland informs The India Rubber World : "Our company 

 is made up largely of friends who intend to go carefully and 

 prove conclusively as we go, and we ourselves are confident 

 of our success." 



PITTSBURG-OBISPO PLANTATION CO. 

 [Plantation at Tuxtepec, state of Oaxaca, Mexico, Office: Times building, 

 Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania ] 



Incorporated December 12, under New Jersey laws, with 

 $500,000 capital, divided equally between 7 per cent, preferred 

 and common shares, of $iooeach. Incorporators: Maxwell F. 

 Riddle, Arthur C. Schiller, John A. Barnes. This company 

 has acquired 1600 acres of land adjoining the plantation " San 

 Silverio el Obispo," owned by the Obispo Rubber Plantation 

 Co., and the name of the new tract will be " El Obispo." Like 

 the former, the new plantation will be developed to a produc- 

 tive stage by the Republic Development Co. The new com- 

 pany has been formed on original lines, in that there will not be 

 any sale of its securities on the installment plan, but its shares 

 will be sold outright, as in the case of a manufacturing corpo- 

 ration. The president is James S. Beacon, late state treasurer 

 of Pennsylvania, and the vice president Edward E. Robbins, a 

 former congressman and now attorney for the Baltimore and 

 Ohio railroad— both of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The secre- 

 tary and treasurer is G. Frank Kelly, treasurer of the Candace 

 Coal and Coke Co., Scottdale, Pennsylvania. Some prominent 

 Pennsylvanians other than those named are also directors, and 

 the board includes Maxwell F. Riddle, who is connected with 

 the other companies named in this paragraph. The agents 

 for the sale of the company's stock are Mitchell, Schiller & 

 Barnes, at the Pittsburgh address given above. 



