d22 



THE INDIA RUBBER W^ORLD 



[August i, 1901. 



Funk are, respectively, president and secretary of the La Crosse 

 Rubber Mills Co. 



RUBBER PLANTATIONS AT TULA, MEXICO. 

 J. Herbert Foster, late of the Rubber Alphabets Co. (Meri- 

 den, Connecticut), writes to the Meriden News from Tula, 

 state of Vera Cruz, Mexico, that he finds there a colony of 

 thirty-five Americans, all interested more or less in planting 

 rubber, and all confident of success. Most of them went to 

 Mexico in 1896 and 1897, and, in connection with other plant- 

 ing, they have about 350,000 rubber trees growing, and expect 

 to set out this year 500,000 more. He found only two planta- 

 tions for sale, and one of these only because of the death of a 

 partner. Four year old trees are 25 feet tall and 8 inches in 

 diameter. They are expected to yield a pound of rubber at six 

 years, and some planters figure at two pounds, with 220 trees 

 to the acre, this amount increasing with the age of the trees. 

 The Indians used to cut down the wild trees and get 40 to 50 

 pounds at once, if the tree was large. Now that they are not 

 allowed to do this, they often get 15 to 25 pounds, by weaken- 

 ing the trees. The Indians allow the rubber milk to run down 

 the trunks of the trees into a hole in the ground, so that the 

 Mexican rubber of commerce contains much dirt. It is ex- 

 pected, when the planted trees begin to yield, that rubber of a 

 much better character will be produced, and that it will bring 

 better prices. 



MEXICAN COFFEE AND RUBBER CO.'s DIVIDENDS. 



The annual meeting of the stockholders was held at Indian- 

 apolis, Indiana, July 18. On the same day the directors de- 

 clared a dividend for the year of 10 per cent., and decided to 

 pay during the next business year quarterly dividends of 3 

 per cent. The company owned originally 5000 acres on the 

 isthmus of Tehuantepec, of which 4000 have been sold to 

 planting companies since formed, under contracts by which the 

 Mexican Coffee and Rubber Co. are to develop their planta- 

 tions. The dividend above referred to has been declared, not 

 as the result of the sale of any products thus far, but from 

 profits from the other transactions referred to.==The stock- 

 holders of the Ubero Plantation Co., of Indianapolis, one of 

 the companies who purchased land from the Mexican Coffee and 

 Rubber Co., met at Indianapolis on the same date and elected 

 Dr. Nathan D. Woodard.of that city, to fill a vacancy in the di- 

 rectorate. The Ubero company have earned dividends amount- 

 ing to 25 per cent, for two years by the cultivation of annual 

 crops, while waiting for their rubber plantation to be developed. 

 ==The Hon. William D. Owen, late secretary of state of In- 

 diana, is president of both the companies named above, besides 

 being connected with two other closely related companies- — 

 the Isthmus Rubber Co. of Ubero (with headquarters in New 

 York) and the Ubero Plantation Co. of Boston. W. 1. Over- 

 street, secretary and treasurer of the Isthmus Rubber Co., is 

 chairman of the executive committee of the two above named 

 companies. 



PROGRESS IN NICARAGUA. 



A letter from James S. Nodine, manager of the Manhat- 

 tan Rubber Plantation, at Bluefields, to The India Rubber 

 World, states that on the day of writing — June 24— he gath- 

 ered seeds from cultivated Caslilloa elastica rubber plants two 

 years old. The plantation, he reports, is showing the most 

 satisfactory progress, leaving no room for doubt as to ultimate 

 success. There are, altogether, abont eighteen rubber planta- 

 tions at Bluefields. Mr. Nodine writes that this year two of 

 the planters in the district will tap their rubber for the first 

 time. On the Manhattan plantation last year some Para rub- 

 ber seeds were planted, a large percentage of which germi- 



nated, and the plants are now growing well. Mr. Nodine has 

 shipped rubber seed from wild trees this year to planters in 

 Mexico. 



RUBBER PLANTING IN THE MALAY STATES. 



To THE Editor of The India Rubber World : We think 

 that this is a great rubber growing country, and that if prices 

 only hold there is a lot of money in it. Laborand suitable land 

 are cheap and plentiful, and we have no fault to find with the 

 yield either of Hevea Braiiliensis (Para) or Ficus elastica. locally 

 known as " Gutta rambong." A certain amount of Casttlloa 

 elastica has been introduced, but it does not promise well^ 

 though apparently yielding large quantities of Caoutchouc, be- 

 cause, having a pithy and very brittle trunk, it is peculiarly li- 

 able to the attacks of the worst of our termites ( Termes gestroi) 

 — a white ant— which thrives on such food, and, commencing 

 from below the ground, eats up through the center of the tree. 

 Borers, too, attack and destroy the branches. Kickxia Afri- 

 cana has been introduced in small quantities, but it is impossi- 

 ble to predict the success or failure of this rubber, as our big- 

 gest trees are scarcely more than seedlings yet. 



For Para rubber and Ficus elastica, however, there seems to 

 be a great future, and any of your friends who are interested in 

 the subject, and who would like to see what we are doing, 

 might do worse than try a run over, with a note from you. I 

 would gladly show them round and put them in the way of see- 

 ing all we have to show, and possibly they might think this 

 small corner of the earth, not so bad after all. Rich in miner- 

 als, gold, and tin, with a great agricultural future before it, the 

 Malay peninsula will hold its own with many countries better 

 known at present. All we want is money and confidence and 

 the country will boom like wildfire. 



Coffee has gone down with such a rush that many of us have 

 lost pretty well all we have put in it, but we calculate in another 

 three years to be on our legs again with rubber, and fancy that 

 the rise in the sterling value of the milreis will knock agricul- 

 ture pretty hard in the Brazils, while our coinage practically 

 follows bar silver values. A planter. 



Klang, Selangor, May 31.190 i. 



THE AGE FOR TAPPING RUBBER. 



Messrs. Bulnes & Co., merchants at San Juan Bautista, 

 state of Tabasco, Mexico, and directors of the Banco de Ta- 

 basco, in writing to The India Rubber World regarding the 

 activity of Americans in planting rubber in that region, add : 



"Now, some people abroad think that an India-rubber tree 

 can safely be ' milked ' after five years from its plantation, 

 without any damage being done to it. This is simply errone- 

 ous. The tree is not fully developed, and with the extraction 

 before maturity its growth is checked and the tree ruined. It 

 should be left to grow eight years, at least." 



RUBBER PLANTING COMPANY PUBLICATIONS. 



The North America Rubber Culture Co,, Kansas City, Missouri. = 

 Rubber Raising as a Permanent Investment. 48 pp. + maps. 



La Zaciialpa Rubber Plantation Co., San Francisco, California.=- 

 Facts for Investors. 24 pp. 



The Santa Maria Chimalapa Plantation Co., Detroit, Michigan.— 

 (i) [Handsomely Illustrated Prospectus.] 32 pp. (2) The Chimalapa 

 Bulletin, June, igoi. 4 pp. 



The Mexican Rubber Plantation Co. of Wisconsin, La Crosse, Wis. 

 =A Business Men's Proposition for Business People. 48 pp. 



The Soconusco Rubber Plantation Co., San Francisco.=[PamphIet 

 containing prospectus and map.] 16 pp. 



Pacific Rubber Co., New York.=A Five Per Cent. Investment, 

 16 pp. 



Commonwealth Mexican Plantation Association)of Chicago. =^Rubber, 

 Sugar Cane, and Coffee in Tropical Mexico. 40 pp. -|- maps. 



