194 



THE INDIA RUBBER V/ORLD 



[March i, 1903. 



most practical rubber planters in Mexico, using various meth- 

 ods, and the results show that 160 trees per acre are all that 

 should be planted. They develop more rapidly, and a tree 2>^ 

 years old planted in this way is much larger than I know to 

 have been seen in Mexico by many persons who have visited 

 plantations where trees were standing four years old, 200 per 

 the acre. The plan of setting 500 or 600 trees to the acre and 

 then thinning out I consider a very bad one. For one reason, 

 the trees will not develop so rapidly, and another reason is that 

 the young rubber tree is very tender, bleeding at the least 

 scratch on the stem, branches, or leaves, and in thinning out 

 one must be extremely careful or it will be found that the trees 

 pulled up will not yield enough rubber to pay for the labor. 



C. M. KENDALL. 

 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, February 6, 1903, 



RUBBER VINES IN HONDURAS. 



Alfred K. Moe, United States consul at Tegucigalpa, Hon- 

 duras, reports the existence in the Pijo mountains, in the de- 

 partment of Yoro, of "a vine growing in an uncultivated state, 

 varying in diameter from 4 inches to 2 feet, which on cutting 

 produces a sap the nature of which is rubber. These vines grow 

 to 100 feet in length." The vine thrives at all altitudes and is 

 said to be abundant. The same plant has been referred to in 

 The India Rubber World of May i, 1901 [page 234]. and 

 November i, 1901 [page 40]. 



YIELD OF "PARA RUBBER" IN SELANGOR. 



The Straits Agricultural Bulletin (November, 1902) reports 

 the record yield of a " Paid " rubber tree for one year, in the Far 

 East, obtained by Cyril E. S. Baxendale,Jugra estate, Selangor, 

 Malay States. Two Hevea seedlings planted, it is believed, in 

 October. 1877 — makmgthem now 25 years old, from the seed — 

 were tapped closely during two months of last summer. One 

 tree, 89 inches in girth at one yard from the ground, had never 

 been tapped before ; the other, with a girth of 56 inches, had 

 yielded 3 pounds during July, 1901. The result for 1902 was : 



Tree No, i. Tree No. 2. Total. 



Yield of fine rubber ... 15 lb. 12 oz, 11 lb. 2 oz. 26 lb. 14 oz. 

 Yield of scrap 2" 4" i" 8" 3" 7" 



LITERATURE OF INDIA-RUBBER. 



Total yield 18 lb. o oz. iz lb. 10 oz. 30 lb. 5 oz. 



RUBBER PLANTING IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA. 

 On the plantation at Lewa, of the Deutsch-Ostafrikanische 

 Piantagengesellschaft, it is stated that 250,000 rubber trees had 

 been planted to the end of November, 1902, of which 15,000 

 are expected. to be ready for tapping this year. Some experi- 

 mental tapping has produced rubber which was well reported 

 on in Germany. The German East Africa Plantation Co., 

 whose headquarters are in Berlin, was formed in 1886, with a 

 capital of 2,000,000 marks, and has planted coffee very exten- 

 sively, on its concession in the Usambara district, near the sea 

 coast, opposite the island of Pemba. 



» * * 



The British North Borneo Herald reports an agreement 

 entered into by the governor of British North Borneo with W. 

 Alleyne Ireland, of the United States, for the formation of an 

 American company to work Gutta-percha and India-rubber in 

 that colony. The lessee shall enjoy for two years the sole right 

 to select and acquire tracts of rubber or gutta forest or land in 

 that territory. 



= We have received from Missouri a pamphlet discrediting 

 rubber planting in Mexico, alleging that the promises of the 

 planting companies are too good to be true. The pamphlet is 

 issued by a company offering Missouri lands for sale, at $3 to 

 $5 per acre, payable in instalments, that "in the very near 

 future" will be worth $50 to $500 per acre. Can any rubber 

 planting company promise better than this ? 



REPORT ON HEVEA BRASILIENSIS IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. 

 By Stanley Aiden, Superintendent E.xperimtntal Planiation.s, Federated 

 Malay Stales. Taiping: Government Printing Office. [Folio. Pp.28] 



' I ' HIS is an official report, treating of the introduction of 



*■ "Para rubber " into the Far East ; methods of cultiva- 

 tion, extraction of latex, and preparation for market; the rate 

 of yield ; and estimates of cost of opening and maintaining a 

 rubber plantation. Mr. Arden has summarized all the authentic 

 details available, from numerous plantations, so.Tie of which 

 will appear at an early date in these pages. He promises a 

 further report on the quality of rubber produced by the various 

 methods described in this pamphlet. 



A NEW journal devoted to rubber interests, and the first in 

 the French language, has been established in Brussels, Z^ Mon- 

 iteiir du Caoutchouc, by Gustave van den Kerckhove. While 

 its scope will embrace industrial and commercial features as 

 well, it is evident from the contents of the first issue (dated 

 February) that special attention is to be given to the develop- 

 ment of the African sources of rubber, with which subject M. 

 Kerckhove has become exceptionally familiar during his several 

 years experience as an expert in the Antwerp rubber market. 

 Le Moniteur, however, is international in scope, and the first 

 number is accompanied by a map of rubber concessions in 

 Bolivia. The new journal has our best wishes, and we shall 

 look forward to seeing its influence shown in an increasing 

 interest in rubber matters in the French speaking countries. 

 [Bureaux : 3, Quai a la Chaux, Bruxelles ; 20 francs per annum.] 



The Calcutta journal started eleven years ago as the Indian 

 Gardening, in time added a planting section which has devel- 

 oped into the more important department of the paper. The 

 title has been changed, therefore, to Indian Platiting and Gar- 

 dening, besides which the paper has been enlarged and made 

 one of the best appearing journals in the Far East. Its very 

 capable editor, Mr. H. St. John Jackson, F. L.S., f.r. h. S., has 

 followed with sympathetic interest the progress in rubber culti- 

 vation, with which his readers have been kept well informed. 

 IN CURRENT PERIODICALS. 



Die Kultur von Kautschuk liefernaen BSumen in Neuguinea. By 

 W. Kolbe. [Caslilloa elastica has been grown for several years in New 

 Guinea as coffee shade and in connection with cocoanuts. Ficus elastica 

 and Hevea have also been planted. ]^/?^r Troptnpflanzer, Berlin, VII- 

 I (January, 1903 ) Pp. 20 24, 



1st die Aniage einer staatlichan Guttaperchapflanzung in Kamerun zu 

 empfehlen ? By Paul Preuss, PH. D. [Reasons for regarding as im- 

 practicable Dr. O. Warburg's suggestion of a state controlled Gutta- 

 percha plantation in Kamerun. ] = Z'i'? Tropenpflatizer, Berlin. VII-i 

 (January, 1903.) Pp. 24-28. 



Une Plantation de Caouchoutiers au Congo. By G. Bemelmans. 

 [Details of Planting 370^^ acres, by one of the Congo trading com- 

 panies, with Para and Ceara rubber, Castilloa elastica, A'ickxia, and 

 Balata.]^^i?^Z'«f ties Cultures Coloniales, Paris. XII-116 (January 5, 

 1903). Pp. I 6. 



OTHER PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 



" MODERN MEXICO'S " STANDARD GUIDE TO THE CITY OF MEXICO 

 and Vicinity. By Robert S Barrett. Third edition— 1902-03. City of Mexico 

 and New York : Published by Modern Mexico. [8vo. Pp. 186. Price, 50 

 cents.] 



This is not a mere collection of travel routes or perfunctory 

 description of places. It has been written, rather than com- 

 piled, and presents much information regarding the country 

 and the people and their customs, of a character to aid the 

 tourist in Mexico in finding readily what is likely most to inter- 

 est him, and in understanding what he sees. Not the least 

 valuable feature of the book is its wealth of illustrations, a 

 sight of which will tempt lovers of the picturesque who have 

 not seen Mexico to wish to visit that country. 



