454 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June 1. 1913. 



and thirds in tires have been sent to this market, and when they 

 gave out were bought in for a few cents, shipped abroad, mended 

 and came back as new ones. 



There are five firms in rubber exporting in Bahia, and two 

 of them have cleaning plants of their own. Several are also 

 interested in Manihot plantations in the interior. We visited all 

 of them and found them more than willing to give information, 

 and deeply interested in the future of Ceara rubber. Incidentally 

 none seemed to 

 believe that any 

 general plan for 

 washing all of 

 Brazil's rubber 

 would be of val- 

 ue, cither to pro- 

 ducer or manu- 

 facturer. One said 

 very plainly that 

 the existence of 

 dirty rubber was 

 due to the cupid- 

 ity of the rubber 

 manufacturer. 

 H e purchased 

 dirty lots in the 

 hope of getting 

 a cheaper rubber 

 content. If he 

 bought only 

 clean rubber. 

 such would in 

 time be the only 

 product. 



We learned 

 that last year 

 caterpillars de- 

 stroyed many of 

 the rubber trees, 

 and that this 

 year the rains 

 were delayed so 

 that another set- 

 back was feared. 

 Indeed some of 

 the local rubber 

 men were very 

 gloomy about 

 the future of 

 Manihot planting 

 because of insect 

 pests — such as 

 caterpillars and 

 white ants — and 

 droughts. At the 

 same time they ac- 

 knowledged that 

 wild Manihots 

 were not killed 

 off, and that it 

 cost 50 per cent, 

 less to gather 

 plantation rubber 

 than wild. 



Then, too, there 

 They were all of 

 Ceara rubber 



Pl.\nt.\tiox Manihot Glasiovii — TYz Ye.^rs Old- 

 Girth — I.v Course of T.\ppixc. 



are the taxes and costs of transportation, 

 the opinion that the whole export tax on 

 should be taken otT. for a time at least. They 

 also cited the freight rates on the railroads as being far too 

 high. l-~c>r example, from Joazeiro to Bahia — about 577 kilo- 



meters — the rate is 670 reis for 10 kilos, or about what it costs 

 from Bahia to Europe. Labor is also scarce and food and all 

 other supplies are very high. 



The courteous head of the Defesa da Borracha, in Rio had 

 cabled ahead to the department in Bahia, and the result was 

 courteous attention on the part of Sr. Alvaro Ramos and the 

 heads of the local Defesa, who arranged audiences with the 

 (jovernor. the Secretary of State and other high officials. They 



were all exceed- 

 ingly polite, and 

 opened every 

 avenue to us in 

 our endeavors to 

 gather informa- 

 tion concerning 

 rubber. 



The rubber 

 fields — that is 

 where the Mani- 

 hots grow, either 

 wild or planted — 

 are not of easy 

 access from 

 Bahia. The near- 

 est is a day's 

 journey, and the 

 best up the San 

 Francisco River 

 are five days 

 away, the jour- 

 ney involving 

 railway travel, 

 water travel and 

 mule riding. 



But first a bit 

 on the various 

 Manihots about 

 which there has 

 been considerable 

 confusion. Only 

 a short time ago 

 but one was 

 known, the Gla- 

 ziovii. Today 

 four distinct 

 types are recog- 

 nized, and only 

 last winter I met 

 a student of the 

 tree who said he 

 was sure that 

 there were at 

 least seven. Right 

 here it may be 

 well to describe 

 the four, not bo- 

 tanically, but in 

 such terms that 

 the non-scientific 

 may be able 

 easily to identify 

 them. 

 The Manihot 



was formerly called the Jatrof'ha Elastica, and it is a blood 

 cousin of the Manihot Utilissima, which produces sweet cassava, 

 and the Manihot Pahnata, or bitter cassava. The product of the 

 various Manihots is called Ceara, Manitoba, Jequie or Manihot 

 rubber. 



-35 Inches in 



