304 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June 1, 1911. 



INDIA-RUBBER AND BALATA IN DUTCH GUIANA. 



(By Our Rcifuhir Correspondent.) 



THE issue of the Balata Compagnie Suriname, Liiiiitid. men- 

 tioned in my letter of last month, was oversubscribed in 

 Rotterdam and Antwerp forty-three times. It is quite evident 

 that the figures published in the prospectus of this company have 

 induced many speculative green-horns to try their luck at this 

 business. I hear already of several new ventures— somebody will 

 have to pay for their experience. I have met here at least two 

 parties who displayed great interest in our rubber plantations; 

 some show disappointment when they find that they cannot Imy 

 planted rubber or rubber estates in full production. I must 

 repeat that only the most advanced plantations have small quan- 

 tities of tappable trees and that the exploitation of our wild 

 rubber, the Hevea Guyancnsis is still in the embryonic stage, the 

 total quantity exported last year being not more than five hun- 

 dred pounds. The few people who now know how to tap and 

 make rubber would bring it to Paramaribo for 60 .\merican 

 cents per pound. 



On the gold placer property of a French company, far up tlic 

 Marowyne river, Le Societe des Mines d'or de I'Awa, a beginning 

 has been made with rubber exploitation. I saw the very first 

 samples of their product, very nice Guyaneiisis rubber, prepared 

 for them by a Brazilian seringuero, who had contracted to work 

 there as a gold digger. Of course he condemned every system of 

 cutting except his own, herring-bone, spiral or whatever they 

 might be, and proceeded to equip himself with a machete and a 

 lot of little cups, baked Indian fashion and stuck to the tree with 

 clay. At any rate, he satisfied himself and his employers, and 

 arranged to go and look out for his family in his native country 

 and bring them back with him to the Rawa placer, to make 

 rubber.' Extensive nurseries are laid out there for wild Hevea 

 Giiayaiieiisis seedlings and also for plants from the genuine Para 

 seeds from Ceylon. 



At plantation Clevia 1,600 CastiUoas, six to seven years ola, 

 yielded 75 grams of dry rubber per tree for the first tapping. 

 After the work was done, I ascertained that the laborers had 

 tapped rather more than two quarters of the trees. It has not 

 yet been ascertained how many times a year the trees may be 

 tapped on this method. The wounds are healing nicely. So it 

 is thought it can be done four times a year.but then not more 

 than two quarters may be tapped at once. The second tapping to 

 be done between the first cuts on the same quarters, and the 

 third and fourth on the other quarters. 



The cost of collection was 1 fl. per kg. ($0.40 a kg). A 

 Javanese could tap about 10 trees a day for f. 0.60. It was the 

 first experience, so they were very awkward. 



The milk is very thick and does not run out of the cut. That 

 is to say, some latex runs away, but it is so watery that it does 

 not count. The rubber can be left to dry on the tree and 

 collected some hours after tapping, or ne.xt day as a very pure 

 scrap. Or the latex can be scraped with the finger or with a 

 brush immediately after tapping into a tin can; diluted with 

 about four times the amount of water and brought in liquid form 

 to the factory to be washed and coagulated. 



According to the latest figures made public by the govern- 

 ment of Surinam, the number of laborers engaged in the balata 

 collecting for the year 1909 was 1,448, and their collections 

 amounted to 628 tons; in the year 1910, the number was 2,698, 

 and they produced 893 tons of balata. The greater number of 

 these laborers came from the adjacent British colonies. 



The average production of one balata gatherer was 357 kilos 

 (787 pounds) in 1909 and 331 kilos (729 pounds) in 1910, though 

 there was one good balata bleeder who made over two tons by 

 himself and several who obtained over a ton in a season. They 

 really only work a small part of the year and when they are 

 idling in Paramaribo, they do very little more than play on the 



guitar and sing; no wonder their throats are dry. As a rule, 

 however, and when at work, these people may be called sober. 

 The Javanese laborers are turning out to be very careful tappers 

 and are quite content when they can earn 20 to 30 .American 

 cents a day. This week one of the immigrant steamers carried 

 back to Calcutta 600 coolies who have served out one or more 

 contracts of five years on the estates. One cannot but be amazed 

 at their saving capacity. Their average earnings, as a rule, are 

 a dollar a week, out of which they must pay for their food and 

 clothing. Nevertheless these returning coolies carried with them 

 57,995 florins [=$23,3191, besides jewelry worth 10,800 florins 

 [=$4,341]. 



It may interest you to know that the revenue of the Surinam 

 government for 1910, was 372,500 florins [=$149,544] more than 

 was expected. Of this amount 121,000 florins [=$48,642] was for 

 taxes and payments on balata concessions. 



A NEW "CASTILLOA" TAPPING DEVICE. 



THIS is a small hammer, of which one side is changed into 

 a curved knife with the cutting edge turned downwards. 

 Tlie wooden handle has just the same length as an ordinary 

 hammer. The cut made in the bark of the tree is so large that 

 a man's finger can be inserted into it. 



"Castillo.\" T.\rpixG Toou 



The knife is used in the manner of a tree-marker, but for 

 tapping it has the advantage over an ordinary tree-marker that 

 the pull is given in the very same direction of the cut and that 

 the weight of the hammer gives weight to the stroke so that the 

 knife does not stop half way in the bark, but gives a smooth, 

 clean cut. With a small pocket whetstone, the edge of the 

 knife may be kept exceedingly sharp. In tapping, the circum- 

 ference of the tree is divided into four equal parts. The tapping 

 is conducted on two such parts opposite each other at once. 

 The cuts are made with the hammer knife at equal distances of 

 about one foot, the one above the other, each cut being parallel 

 with the former and running aslant over the part to be tapped. 

 In this way the trees are tapped from the base to as high as 

 the laborers can reach. With a ladder they can get to 15 to 20 

 feet. [Invented by J. W. Gonggrijp, Paramaribo, Dutch 

 Guiana.] 



The seventeenth volume of the ye.ar book (1910) of the 

 United States Department of .\griculture, will shortly be pub- 

 lished. A voluminous publication, of nearly 600 pages, it contains, in 

 addition to a general report on the operations of the department, 

 a number of articles contributed mainly by members of its 

 scientific force, treating on important questions at present occupy- 

 ing the attention of the public and relating to food supply, 

 forestry, agriculture, good roads, etc. There are 49 full page 

 illustrations in the report, of which eight are colored, while the 

 statistical appendix is a remarkably complete presentation of 

 agricultural conditions in the United States. The volume is 

 distributed principally by Senators and members of Congress, 

 to whom early application should be made by those desirous 

 of securing a copy. 



Send for Tnde.x (free) to Mr. Pearson's "Crude Rubber and 

 Compounding Ingredients.' 



