342 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July 1, 1911. 



Not that there are no bargains in the tropical world 

 for those who know wliat they want and recognize it 

 when they see it. It, for example, six Castilloas will 

 produce as much rubber as one Hcvea, and further pro- 

 vided that the cost of collection is less, and the pur- 

 chase price of mature trees infinitely less, it would ap- 

 pear as if there might be some bargains in the millions 

 of trees growing in Mexico and Central America. Nor 

 is it at all impossible that in some of the great plant- 

 ings of Manihot in southern Brazil, particularly if it be 

 the Dichotoma, there might be found e.xceedingly good 

 bargains. 



Hevea is also to be found planted in many other 

 parts of the tropics besides Ceylon and Mala3-ia — parts 

 of the world that have not experienced the rubber 

 craze, where capital is not easily interested, and where 

 by the conservative it is still looked upon as an experi- 

 ment — there, too, is bargain ground. 



PAY A TRIFLE MORE. 



A PROMINENT concern manufacturing type- 

 writers thus writes us: "If you have com- 

 pared rubber cjdinders of today with the cylinders of 

 twenty years ago, you will see the vast difference. 

 The cylinders today are usually composition, called 

 rubber by courtesy. Of course, this is due to the 

 desire of all manufacturers to reduce the cost." 



An honest confession of this sort is refreshing, that 

 is if by "all manufacturers" the writer means all type- 

 writer manufacturers. With a patented article cost- 

 ing, say, $15 (this is only a guess) and selling at $100, 

 or over, they should be able to afford good rolls. Still 

 the bigger the profits the greater the incentive to cut 

 down costs and make a trifle more. 



CAPITALIZING "COSTILLA ALBA." 



AN ADVERTISER in New York's leading busi- 

 •**■ ness paper needs $1,000, so he afiirms, for the in- 

 corporation of a $5,000,000 company. lie has four large 

 plantations upon which are eight year old "Costilla Alba" 

 trees, "giving $50,000 a year, figuring now $1.00 a 

 pound." The only signature to the advertiscimiit is 

 R. 394, care of the newspaper office. 



Here is mystery. Invoking Sherlock Holmes, the ad- 

 vertisement yields much. Thus, "You will observe, mv 

 dear Watson, that the advertisement leaves out iinpor- 

 tant words such as "rubber" before "now" ; hence it came 

 as a cable. A further proof of this is in the word Cos- 



tilla, which was undoubtedly written Castilla, the change 

 of the a to o being a natural mistake in cabling. The 

 sender of the cable resides in Colombia, as indicated by 

 the Alba. He has been reading the writings of O. F. 

 Cook, as proved b)- the Castilla instead of Castilloa. He 

 is a cautious man, and money would be safe with him, 

 as is evidenced by the care he takes of his own $50,000, 

 preferring to keep that and allow someone else to put 

 u]) the $1,000 for the incorporation. 



CHICLE SUBSTITUTES FOR CHEWING GUM. 



A MEXICAN correspondent predicts the failure of 

 ^ ^ the chicle crop sometime in the not far distant 

 future. That does not of necessity mean that the gum 

 chewer is likely to cease out of the land. Already several 

 plastics have appeared that could be used as substitutes. 

 There are plenty of waxes, or resins, or gums, that 

 alone or in combination may be adopted so that the 

 chewinc; gum trusts can still continue in business. 



TO MAKE RUBBER COLLECTION CHEAPER. 



THI"' past month has been a hard one for rubber pro- 

 ducers on the Amazon. JNIanaos is fairly easy as 

 she sold rubber all the way down, quotations there often 

 being 10 cents a pound less than in Para. At the same 

 time the stocks, more than 6,000 tons, valued at some 

 $15,000,000 upon which the Banco do Brasil has ad- 

 vanced large sums are still unsold, and the bank does 

 not seem inclined to make further advances. 



Passos Miranda, who will be remembered as one of 

 the chief orators at the recent rubber congress in Manaos, 

 has submitted to the Federal government a series of 

 proposals similar to some that he suggested on that 

 occasion. They embody river improvements on im- 

 portant branches of the Rio Negro, the large southern 

 affluents of the Amazon, the Acre-Puriis, hospitals in the 

 interior, quarters for immigrants in Para and Manaos, 

 model breeding farms, etc. To do this a loan of 

 $30,000,000 is suggested to be raised by selling bonds 

 that would net about 6 per cent. To pay the interest a 

 tax of 400 R per Kilo (= about 6 cents per pound) 

 would he added. 



Such a project carried out would undoubtedly decrease 

 the excessive cost of getting rubber to market, and if 

 labor responded, reduce the cost of collection also. It is 

 mi fortunate that the Inirden of the work falls upon the 

 pmxhaser of rubber, however, which is already over- 

 taxed. 



