398 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May 1, 1913. 



Rubber in Southern Brazil — 1. 



By the Editor of The India Rubber World. 



FIRST LETTER. 

 Southern Brazil the Center of Rubber Interest — Three Weeks to Rio — 

 Rubber News En Route — Cape Frio — Summer in January — A Marvellous Climate 

 — The Most Picturesque City in the World — The Minister of Agriculture — The 

 Defesa da Borracha — Rubber Washing Laws — Old and New Friends — Corcovado 

 — The Sugar Loaf — The Botanic Gardens. 



MANY rubber men have visited Northern Brazil, are fa- 

 miliar with Para and Manaos, and perhaps with Ceara 

 and Pcrnambuco, but do not know Rio de Janeiro. Yet an 

 acquaintance with the greatest and most progressive of South 

 American cities 



is necessary, if 

 one is to ade- 

 quately under- 

 stand Brazil, 

 particularly in 

 its attitude to 

 the rubber indus- 

 try. 



In the valley 

 of the Amazon 

 nearly all of the 

 commercial ac- 

 tivity centers in 

 its rubber. But 

 in the great 

 southern country 

 coffee, cattle, 

 hides, sugar and 

 cotton, together 

 with the begin- 

 nings of many 

 lines of manu- 

 facture, all have 

 their effect in de- 

 termining the 

 governmental at- 

 titude toward 

 rubber production, protection and taxation. 



The early part of 1913 promised to be a period of exceptional 

 activity in rubber legislation in Brazil, with the center of in- 

 terest at Rio. The distinguished Brazilians who were present 



The Anciext Aqueduct, kii 



put it in a position to compete with Eastern plantation rubber. 

 Rio de Janeiro is three weeks distant from New York by 

 steamer, and correspondence is slow and inadequate. These and 

 other considerations led me, therefore, to journey down to the 

 Brazilian capital to see for myself, at least in part, what was 

 doing or about to be done. 



There are three ways commonly employed by those who take 

 this journey, — by the cargo boats that ply regularly between 



New York and 

 the River Plate; 

 by the excursion 

 steamers that in- 

 termittently visit 

 the islands of 

 the Caribbean 

 and the eastern 

 coast of South 

 America; and by 

 the fine passen- 

 ger boats that 

 ply between Eu- 

 rope and Rio. 

 The cargo boats 

 have been uni- 

 formly bad, as 

 far as bed and 

 board go, al- 

 though the con- 

 stant and em- 

 phatic protests of 

 traveling .Amer- 

 icans are taking 

 effect in an at- 

 tempt at better 

 service and more 

 courteous treat- 

 ment. By taking a Dutch boat to Barbados, and a big excursion 

 boat from there, I got to Rio speedily and comfortably. 



It is a curious fact, but the smoking room of any steamer 

 bound for a rubber port yields an amount of information credible 



ExTR.\NCE TO H.\RBOR, RiO. 



at the New York Rubber Exposition, made no secret of the fact 

 that they felt that the situation in Brazil was nearing a crisis, 

 and that the Federal and State Governments w-ere preparing to 

 do everything possible to preserve their great industry, and to 



One of the M.'lGnificent Boulevards, Rio. 



and otherwise, relating to gum elastic that one could not get 

 easily anywhere else in the world. On the two boats named, for 

 example, I was informed of a new balata concession in Vene- 

 zuela; of a great chicle concession in the same country; of a 



