December 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



157 



BRAZILIAN VIEW OF NEW YOHK PRIZE AWARD. 



The "Revista" of the Amazonas Commercial Association of 

 Manaos, in commenting upon the cable advice of the award to 

 the State of Amazonas of The India Rubber World trophy, re- 

 marks : 



"It is beyond doubt that our rubber forms a distinct type, 

 superior in resistance and elasticity to the rubbers obtained by 

 the chemical coagulation of the latex, seeing that in competition 

 with the latter it has obtained the special prize in three ex- 

 positions." 



A CHANCE TO START RUBBER IN BURMA. 



A letter has been received in the office of The India Rubber 

 World from an Englishman resident in Burma, who believes 

 that there is a very fine prospect for the profitable piantiug of 

 rubber iti that country. He writes as follows; "I am very much 

 interested in rubber, being a practical planter of seven years' 

 experience in Sumatra, Malay States and Burma, and from what 

 I have seen this country compares very favorably with the oth- 

 ers, and 1 am certain there is a great future for rubber-growing 

 in Burma. The principal reasons in support of the above state- 

 ments are as follows: 



"1. Large tracts of suitable rubber-growing land. 



"2. Soil and climatic conditions excellent. 



"3. Plenty of labor, and cheaper labor than in other countries, 

 daily labor varying from 16 to 25 American cents per day, prin- 

 cipally the former. 



"4. Estates are very free from disease. 



"5. Easy communicatiiins by road, rail or sea. 



"6. Land is rent-free for eight years. 



"And lastly, estates can be opened up, burnt, cleared and 

 stumped, planted and brought into bearing easily for $150 

 American money, which compares very favorably with other 

 countries." 



He goes on to say that he believes there is a fine opportunity 

 for American capitalists to invest money in a rubber plantation 

 in Burma, and he would like very much to undertake the 

 management of such a plantation, and refers to a number of 

 people in the Middle East and in London who will vouch for 

 his personal reliability. 



PLANTATION AND WILD RUBBER— AS VIEWED BY A BELGIAN 

 EXPERT. 



In a review of the above question in the columns of the 

 "Gumnii-Zeitung," M. G. van den Kerckhove, of Brussels, refers 

 to the opinion often heard that wild rubber is destined to be 

 superseded by plantation rubber, but takes exception to that 

 view of the case. Here is his opinion of the matter: 



"Wild rubber will always retain its market, particularly the 

 fine Para of the -Amazon, which will always remain the standard 

 of elasticity for all the rubber manufacturers in the world. Fine 

 Para will not allow itself to be dethroned, and will always take 

 the lead for elasticity, although many Ceylon and Malay descrip- 

 tions may surpass it as to purity and dryness." 



From the above it is deduced that the efforts of the planting 

 companies should be directed towards a product as far as pos- 

 sible equal to fine Para. 



Attention is called to the fact that ithere is in plantation rub- 

 ber a great diversity of quality, though from the same source 

 (Hcz'ea) and cultivated on the same soil. At a recent London 

 auction, according to this writer, there were 11 or 12 well marked 

 qualities of crepe ranging in price from 3s. 8d. to 4s. 8d.. and 

 five qualities of biscuits and sheets from 4s. 4/4d. to 4s. 7l.id. 

 Only block was fairly uniform in price and quality. 



He continues : 



"Is there any way of counteracting this diversity in quality, 

 which affects the good reputation of this rubber? I must an- 

 swer this in the affirmative. In my opinion, binding agreements 

 should be made at one of the next rubber congresses, between 



the planting companies as to a uniformity in the form of their 

 product, and about uniform coagulation of- the latex." 



In conclusion, it is added, that while such an arrangement 

 would be extremely difficult, yet if a majority of the rub- 

 ber producing companies were in favor of the measure, the 

 others must necessarily follow. The consequent uniformity 

 would lead to greater confidence on the part of manufacturers 

 and to a higher valuation of the product; to the advantage of 

 plantation industry; particularly in the Malay States, Ceylon and 

 the Dutch Indies. 



SUMATRA'S RUBBER OUTLOOK. 



Since the L"nited States Rubber Co. invested in an 80,000-acre 

 plantation in Sumatra and has started to plant this to rubber- 

 having, as a matter of fact, nearly one-third of this great 

 acreage already set out in rubber trees — a great deal of atten- 

 tion has been turned on the part of rubber planters everywhere 

 to this particular island. Baron Autenried, the manager of one 

 of the large English plantations in Sumatra, who recently passed 

 through New York on a trip around the world, was very en- 

 thusiastic over the Sumatra rubber outlook. He expressed him- 

 self as follows : 



"Of course, everybody out there seems to be going in more or 

 less for rubber. The first trees were planted in 1899, and then 

 in 1903 the great estates, many of which had been devoted to 

 coffee raising, began to plant rubber. A little later came the 

 rubber boom, when a great deal of English capital came in, and 

 much new land was opened. Up to 1911 there were 126,000 

 acres on the east coast in rubber. Now about $25,000,000 of 

 English capital, $3,500,000 Dutch, $2,000,000 of French, $400,000 

 of German, and $4,000,000 of American money are invested in 

 the industry. 



"Experiments have shown that the eastern district of Sumatra 

 is more favorably adapted to rubber cultivation than Ceylon, 

 and is equally as good for that purpose as the Federated Malay 

 States. Besides, labor conditions are much better than in most 

 other countries. We import coolies from Java, which is over- 

 populated, and the workmen are very satisfactory. It takes a 

 rubber tree four years to bear in Sumatra. We have better 

 weather and a more equable temperature than they have in 

 Singapore. 



"As a rubber producing country. Sumatra is only beginning. 

 So far only some twenty estates are actually producing, for 

 most of the planting was done during the boom. The exporta- 

 tion of rubber in 1911 was 1.400.000 pounds. In 1914 this will 

 be doubled." — 



AN ENGLISH OPINION OF UNITED STATES RUBBER CO.'S 

 PLANTATION. 



In reviewing the above subject the "Financier" of London re- 

 marks that it will be about two or three years before the United 

 States Rubber Co. can reasonably expect to get any quantity of 

 rubber from its 80,000-acre plantation in Sumatra. But. it is 

 added, after the trees come into bearing they should rapidly in- 

 crease their production, until a yearly total of 15,000,000 to 

 20,000.000 pounds of rubber should be available. 



Whether production will ever reach a point where the com- 

 pany is not obliged to buy any rubber in the open market, 

 it is considered too early to predict, but it is remarked that in 

 the best opinion this idea will be very closely realized. 



Lentil the trees come into bearing the capital w'hich will have 

 been poured into this Sumatra investment, will, it is calculated, 

 have reached $6,000,000, this money in the meantime earning 

 nothing. As to prospective value of the property, the journal 

 says in conclusion : 



"This rubber plantation is a valuable equity with fascinating 

 possibilities. Its income-producing ability has not begun to be 

 discounted in the price of the shares. As time goes on, it 

 must inevitably receive an increasing degree of speculative 

 attention. 



