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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Ma\ 



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portant share of the commercial world now open to industrial 

 America in which the salesman who speaks only English is at 

 a disadvantage, and where catalogues printed in English can 

 hardly be of any use. Several American firms have distributed 

 catalogues in Spanish in countries where that is the language 

 of commerce, and there is equally good reason for preparing 

 advertising matter in French and German to reach the trade 



of certain other sections. 



* » * 



When even elaborate catalogues can be had for the asking, 

 the average man is not apt to appreciate the cost of preparing 

 them. The latest catalogue of one rubber firm cost 30 cents 

 each for the printing alone, or $300 per thousand, and they 

 have a good many thousand customers. The firm issue new 

 catalogues frequently, and their printers' bills must be rather 



heavy. 



» * » 



At this season rubber shoe catalogues come falling like 

 leaves in autumn. The United States Rubber Co. probably 

 have issued a million catalogues and price lists in a single year, 

 and most of the other companies m that line are liberal in dis- 

 tributing printed matter. And yet the trade is never satisfied. 

 A single rubber shoe jobbing house has been known to ask for 

 50,000 catalogues to distribute among its customers. Some 

 years ago, when the question of revising mechanical rubber 

 prices was up, a leading manufacturer opposed it, saying that 

 his firm had circulated not less than 800,000 catalogues and 

 lists, some of which had found their way to every part of the 

 world, and he favored letting the printed prices stand and 

 changing discounts as a more convenient means of dealing 

 with the question. The other firms agreed with him. 



* * * 



There is no such prodigality of catalogue distribution else- 

 where. One of the great European rubber factories is still 

 using an illustrated catalogue of 1885, quoting different dis- 

 counts whenever change is desirable. Two other important 

 concerns who were asked lately for their catalogues replied 

 that they issued none, for the reason that their goods were 

 manufactured for the most part on specifications from custom- 

 ers, and they saw no need of catalogues. 



* * * 



American rubber manufacturers' catalogues not only are 

 becoming more attractive in appearance, but they are at all 

 times of interest as indicating more clearly the character of 

 our rubber products, and the changes from year to year, than 

 any other branch of the literature of rubber could possibly do. 

 The writer can but regret, however, that these catalogues are 

 not more uniform in size, so as to permit those of a given class 

 to be kept together more conveniently. 



» ♦ • 



A RUBBER manufacturing company incorporated under New 

 York laws has lately been dissolved, and a new corporation 

 formed in another state, even though this step has made it 

 necessary to abandon the old company name, which the found- 

 ers have worked hard and long to make familiar in the trade. 

 The reason given is that corporation taxes have become ex- 

 cessive in this state. It is necessary, however, that they 

 should continue to do business in New York, and to cover this 

 a corporation capitalized for a few thousand dollars has been 

 registered at Albany. Several large rubber companies, incor- 

 porated originally in other states, have formed small corpor- 

 tions under New York laws to cover their business in this 

 state, to avoid the heavy charges which the state would impose 

 upon them if they transacted business here as foreign corpora- 

 tions, reporting their full capital invested. 



MEXICAN RUBBER EXHIBITS AT PARIS. 



IN reply to an inquiry regarding a report published that 

 " eight kinds of India-rubber " were included in the Mexi- 

 ican exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1900, the secretary of 

 the interior of that country writes : 



To THE Editor ok The India Rubber World: I have 

 the pleasure of transmitting the information I have obtained 

 with regard to the exhibits of rubber at the Paris Exposition, 

 as follows : 



All the rubber plants shown were what is known as the 

 " hule," which is the Castilloa elastica, the only one profitably 

 exploited in this republic. The exhibitors were : 



Barrow, Forbes & Co.. Hacienda, " .San Lorenzo," Tepic. 



Camacho Ismael. Hacienda " Las Conchas." Chiapas. 



State Government of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutierrez. 



State Government of Tabasco, San Juan Bautista. 



Ramos Brothers, Federal District. 



Estate of Matias Romero, Soronusco, Chiapas. 



There exist in the country other plants from which Caout- 

 chouc may be extracted, but I do not know of any company 

 exploiting them, and I doubt if any one will attempt it com- 

 mercially until some more economical method for extracting 

 the rubber is found. Very truly, leandro Fernandez. 



Mexico, March 14, 1901. 



RUBBER PLANTING IN HONDURAS. 



Senor Nicanor Bolet-Monagas, secretary to the Hon- 

 duras consulate general in the United States, at New York, 

 who is developing a private plantation of bananas and other 

 native products on the coast of Honduras, near the Guatema- 

 lan border, informs The India Rubber World that wild rub- 

 ber trees (Castilloa elastica^ are abundant in that region, and 

 that he has planted successfully seedlings drawn from the for- 

 ests. He planted last year several thousand such seedlings, 

 which the natives brought to him for 30 cents per 100. and 

 they are now thriving. He intends having planted this spring 

 enough trees to increase the number to 8000, and he expects, 

 by the time they are six years old, to be able to extract a pound 

 of rubber per tree, on an average. The forests are not dense, 

 and the seedlings are set out in spots most accessible to the 

 light, about 200 to the acre, at a cost for planting of about $3 

 gold (per acre). The annual cost of care of the trees is esti- 

 mated at $3 per acre. He recommends this section for rubber 

 planting on a large scale, on account of the cheap lands, good 

 climate, and excellent supply of labor. Sefior Bolet's planta- 

 tion is in the department adjoining Yoro, mentioned in the 

 next paragraph. 



There has been discovered in Honduras, in the department 

 of Yoro, in the Pijo mountains — according to £7 /'ai5<//(3« de 

 Honduras, a semi official publication — a vine or creeper sup- 

 posed to be of the same family as the African rubber vine. The 

 explorer who made the discovery says that the vine is from 20 

 to 25 and even 30 meters long, the largest being half a meter in 

 diameter. They are found clinging to the largest forest trees. 

 The vines are bled by making incisions in the bark, but this 

 process is not satisfactory, as the sap is thick and all of it 

 cannot be extracted in this way. The rubber produced is de- 

 scribed as being of good quality. 



The Diario del Salvador reports the formation of a company 

 to exploit rubber in the Yoro district, composed of General 

 Don Maximo B. Resales, vice president of the republic and 

 secretary of war ; Don Floriano David, governor of Yoro ; and 

 Don Guillermo Heyden, and Don Rafael M. L6pez, leading 

 merchants in the district. Honduras exported rubber in 1899- 

 1900 to the value or $88,842.80 (silver). 



