M.w 1. 1913. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



401 



was formerly head of the Royal Department of Agriculture in 

 Ceylon. He gave me much assistance in securing facts and fig- 

 ures on Hevea planting in the Middle East when in 1904 I 

 visited that part of the world, and so I naturally sought him 

 first. If I may digress a bit, Dr. Willis was the discoverer of 

 "Wound Response" in Hcfea, and his experiments, observations 

 and notes were a determining factor in the uniform success that 



racha, Sr. Da Silva, and arranged visits to the many points of 

 interest round and about the city. 



Then J. 11. MacFadyean, the head of the Goodyear Tire and 

 Rubber Co. of South America, looked me up. His story of th? 

 decision to start a factory in Rio, of the opposition of local rival 

 concerns and of his persistent diplomatic work was interesting and 

 enlightening. At the time I saw him his bid for a manufactur- 



AVE.M t 111- .\lAM,uh>. 



Avenue of P.vliis, Bot.\nic G.\rue.\s. 



The Heights Above Rio, SYLvt^iI<h. 



attended rubber planting in Ceylon and the IMalay States. This 

 is no reflection upon the many able men attached to that Agri- 

 cultural department, but it happened that he was in the right 

 place at the right time to be useful. 



I found Dr. Willis deeply engrossed in the work of making 

 of the somewhat neglected Rio gardens "the most complete and 

 beautiful tropical botanic gardens in the world." And that is 

 undoubtedly what he will accomplish within the next ten years. 

 Thus it was that his immediate interest was not in rubber or 

 rubber washing. He did, however, put me in touch with the men 

 who were vitally interested. The first thing was a visiting 

 membership to the "Club Central.'' where all the English and 

 .•\mericans to the number of seven hundred belong. Then came 

 a dinner at which I met George Morgan, the American Am- 

 bassador: Mr. Ellis, f)f the Geological Survev, and Sr. Rod- 



ing plant had not been accepted. He had also put in a bid for 

 a washing plant at Manaos, not to make money, as he explained, 

 but to do the work at a fair price, and to keep other bids down 

 to a reasonable figure. 



Directly after my chat with IiIacFadyean T met J. Simao Da 

 Costa on the Avenida. I had thought of him as being at his 

 home in Para, and was delighted to find him in Rio. He took 

 me to the Giiarantea Amazonia building, where his offices are 

 situated, and gave me the full story of the Defesa da Borracha 

 from the Brazilian point of view. He also secured for me docu- 

 ments, books, maps and photos ; all of which helped to throw 

 light on the Brazilian situation. 



Sr. Da Costa delivered two scholarly lectures last winter be- 

 fore the Club De Engenharia at Rio, on rubber in Brazil from 

 the plantation standpoint, and again from a commercial and in- 



Bo.\T L.VNDIXG, Rio. 



W.\TER \'lEW. BoT.\XIC G.\RDENS. 



erigues, owner of the "Jornal do Commercio." the "London dustrial standpoint. At both of these gatherings the most dis- 

 Times of Brazil." He took me to call upon the Minister of tinguished men in the city were present, and the lectures did 

 Agriculture, Sr. Toledo, and the head of the Defesa da Bor- much to give them a clear view of the world's rubber situation. 



