14 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^A'^ORLD 



[October i, 1901. 



RUBBER PLANTING INTERESTS. 



JOSEPH O. STOKES, treasurer and general manager of the 

 Home Rubber Co. and president of the Trenton Rubber 

 Manufacturing Co. and the Joseph Stokes Rubber Co., has 

 accepted the presidency of the Isthmus Rubber Co. of Ubero, 

 another indication that prominent rubber manufacturers are 

 taking an active interest in the cultivation of rubber. 



MUTUAL RUBBER PRODUCTION CO., NO. I. 

 [Plantation on the Tulija and Agua Clara rivers, department of Palemiue, state 

 of Chiapas, Mexico. Offices: 95 Milk street, Boston, Massachusetts.] 



iNCORi'ORATED; capital, $1 ,440,000. Theofficers are: Charles 

 A. Coe, wholesale rubber goods dealer in Boston, president ; 

 Walter L. Hall, M. D., of Medford, Massachusetts, and the 

 owner of a private rubber plantation in Mexico, vice president; 

 Charles F. Coburn, a Boston capitalist, treasurer; D.N. Graves, 

 who has been connected with another rubber plantation, secre- 

 tary and general manager; E. IV. Graves, ?i trained horticult- 

 urist, plantation manager. The company have acquired a tract 

 of 6175 acres, and will plant 600 trees to the acre, with the idea 

 of thinning out later. Shares are oflfered, payable in install- 

 ments, each share representing an acre of the plantation. 



HONDURAS. 



In our May i issue was mentioned the interest of Seilor 

 Nicanor Bolet-Monagas, son of the consul general at New York 

 for Honduras, in rubber planting in the latter country. He 

 has since accompanied to Honduras a party of young gentle- 

 men from the States, each with some capital, who intend plant- 

 ing rubber extensively in the neighborhood of Sefior Bolet"s 

 estate. Sefior Bolet has contributed to El Exportador Ameri- 

 cano (New York), his views on the cultivation of rubber in 

 Central America, in connection with which he recommends 

 concert of action, both for the general advancement of the indus- 

 try, and in order that the planters may be prepared to pro- 

 tect themselves if the time should ever come, as it has in 

 the cofTee interest, that overproduction should lead to a de- 

 cline in prices and profits. 



The report for 1899 1900 of the Honduras ministerio de fo- 

 mento y obias publicas, states that the cultivation of rubber 

 has been begun in the department of Choluteca. Arthur H. 

 Howland, of the United States, it is stated, has obtained a con- 

 cession for the establishment of a large rubber plantation in the 

 department of Olancho, and increased interest in rubber plant- 

 ing is being shown by individuals throughout the republic. 

 Crude rubber is produced principally in the departments of 

 Mosquitia, Olancho, and Choluteca. The Mr. Howland re- 

 ferred to was one of the incorporators, November 4, 1899, of 

 the Pan-American Rubber Co.. under New Jersey laws, with an 

 authorized capital of $1,000,000. 



George A. Ellis, a civil engineer of Springfield, Massachu- 

 setts, has returned home after an absence since September last, 

 having been engaged by the Pan American Rubber Co. (New 

 York) in opening a road 80 miles long from the gulf of Hon- 

 duras, to Valencia, a town on the river Patuca, where they have 

 a rubber plantation. The road is made necessary by obstruc- 

 tions to the navigation of the river. The Pan American com- 

 pany are now removing the valuable woods on their concession, 

 and gathering wild rubber. 



THE GERMAN RUBBER EXPEDITION. 

 From time to time, at the sessions of the German Colonial 

 Industrial Committee, at Berlin, reports are read on the pro- 

 gress of the Gutta-percha and Caoutchouc expedition to the 

 South sea colonies, now in progress under the leadership of 

 Herr Rudolf Schlechter. A recent report related to the botan- 



ical gardens at Singapore. Gutta trees {Dichopsis gulla) and 

 Caoutchouc plants {Iler'ea, Willoughbeia, and Urceola) are cul- 

 tivated. No definite conclusion has been arrived at in the case 

 of the Gutta trees, but the culture of He7/ea (Paia rubber) is 

 said to have shown very good results. Fourteen year old trees 

 yielded, on being tapped very prudently, i kilogram of fine 

 quality. The 13,000 Hevea trees in the Singapore botanical 

 gardens will not be tapped again, in order that the largest num • 

 ber of seeds for plantations may be obtained. It is intended 

 to furnish annually from 150,000 to 200,000 seeds, at I cent each. 

 The plantations have been made in comparatively swampy local- 

 ities, which are flooded for a short period in each year, but it is 

 stated that the trees growing on higher ground yield also a 

 liberal quantity of Caoutchouc. Herr Schlechter, in the com- 

 pany of Mr. Curtis, the director of the botanical gardens at 

 Penang, was next to visit the Gutta-percha and Caoutchouc 

 planta'-ions at Penang and Perak. Seeds and cuttings of 

 Gutta-percha and India-rubber trees were to be sent to the 

 South sea colonies, and, also to the German West African 

 colonies. 



In a later report Herr Schlechter wrote, from Malacca, in the 

 Straits Settlements: "I next visited together with Tan Chay 

 Yan, a Chinaman, the latter's rubber plantation, situated about 

 six miles from town. What I saw here surpassed my highest 

 expectations. The plantation consisted of a small area of 56 

 acres. On it were planted Ficus elastica — called locally ' Ram- 

 bong' — and Hevea at intervals of 6 meters. The plantation was 

 four years old and was kept in order by five Chinese coolies. 

 As the proprietor assured me, the monthly expenses on the 

 plantation are not higher than $40 (silver), whilst annually by 

 the sale of young seedlings the sum of about $2000 has been re- 

 ceived. This instance may be unique, as ordinarily four-year 

 old Hevea trees do not furnish any seed, as has been the case 

 here. Even one specimen of Ficus elastica had some fruit 

 growing." 



ON THE UPPER AMAZON. 



The Andes Rubber Co., was incorporated August 15, under 

 Delaware laws, with $2,000,000 capital, to acquire lands in Peru 

 and Bolivia, and develop the same. The incorporators are 

 Henry A. Parr, Nicholas P. Bond, Thomas F. McGlone, and 

 Edward Powell Hill, all of Baltimore, Maryland, in which city 

 the offices of the company will be located. It is understood 

 that a concession or concessions of rubber territory have al- 

 ready been acquired. 



TRINIDAD. 



A RUBBER plantation has been established on this island by 

 a Swedish professor of botany and natural history — Professor 

 Bovallius, of the University of Upsala. He has purchased 

 4000 acres of government land and organized the Narva Estates 

 Co., Limited, to grow India-rubber, cacao, and other native 

 products. It is expected that rubber may be obtained within 

 eight years from planting, and the meantime returns of value 

 are expected from cacao, cocoanuts, and corn. By the way, the 

 growing of cocoanuts is referred to as being very profitable. 

 They were exported from Trinidad in 1899 to the value of 

 $225,000. 



BURMA. 



J. H.Todd, of Amherst, Lower Burma, writes to the Isth- 

 mus Rubber Co. of Ubero (New York): "Seeing your adver- 

 tisement in The India Rubber World, I now write for par- 

 ticulars and prospectus of the company ; also any pamphlet 

 you may have on rubber planting, as I take great interest in 

 the subject and have a small plantation of 5000 trees of Hevea 

 .ffrrt«//>«iv.f established here two years old, largest tree 12 feet 

 high." 



