March 1,1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



185 



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THE 



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HENRY C. PEARSON, Editor 



Vol. 43. 



MARCH I. 1911. 



No. 6. 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE READING MATTER. 



GOVERNMENTAL SUPERVISION IN PLANTING. 



THE general public very rarely have or can be ex- 

 pected to have an intelligent idea concerning the 

 relative importance of governmental departments. If 

 one, for instance, were to suggest to the average man 

 that a department of agriculture could be and should 

 be of more value to a country than any other depart- 

 ment, the statement would be scoffed at. It takes 

 very little explaining, however, to prove that the basic 

 wealth of any aggregation of people comes from the 

 ground, in fact is founded upon agricultural products 

 in a great measure. It is, therefore, not only the 

 privilege but the duty of a government to make its 

 agricultural department an efficient, vital director and 

 adviser of the agriculturalist. 



These thoughts are prompted by a mental survey of 

 what the government of Great Britain has done for 

 her colonies through her Imperial Departments of 

 Agriculture. The striking illustration of the wonder- 

 ful success of rubber planting in Ceylon and the 

 Federated Malay States will at once occur to the 

 reader. 



It is a curious fact, however, that striking illustra- 

 tions very rarely gauge even in small measure the 

 values of such work. Were it possible to take a 

 ^_ census of mistakes prevented — a list of costly blunderi. 



avoided — due to the research, the knowledge and the 

 sound advice furnished planters by British Agricul- 

 tural Departments the sum would be enormous. 



Take, for example, our near neighbors, the West 

 Indian Islands. The planters unguided would have 

 covered those fertile islands with many sorts of rubber 

 producers unsuited to climate or soil and perhaps 

 both. With an alert, capable agricultural department, 

 however, in the hands of men trained in such work, 

 most of the planters were persuaded not to go heavily 

 into any rubber producer until it had been thoroughly 

 tried out and proved a success. This often entailed 

 much waiting and disappointment, but it literally 

 saved millions. 



Today the areas where Castilloa elastica will grow 

 are absolutely defined. Such islands as Dominica, 

 whose sheltered, moisture-laden valleys are suitable 

 for the Hcvca Brasilicnsis are plainly indicated be- 

 cause already tested. The dryer islands like Antigua, 

 where there is a probability of a successful cultivation 

 of the Manihot dichotouia, are undergoing the same 

 searching, conscientious, experimentation. 



It should be remembered that rubber, to these de- 

 partments, is only one item. The same careful work 

 IS put upon every agricultural product and incident- 

 ally the broad knowledge thus gathered, particularly 

 in relation to the many enemies to plant life, is of the 

 greatest value to the rubber planter. 



It is a curious fact but the agriculturist himself is 

 often times the man who least appreciates the re- 

 straining influence of the specialists connected with 

 his department of agriculture. He is very likely to 

 look with scorn upon the man who spends precious 

 hours in the detection of fungi or weeks in studying 

 the life habits of some insignificant moth. He, too, is 

 apt to think that his own agricultural society or 

 grange really knows much more about growing things 

 than does any college product, who never has or never 

 will run a plantation for a livelihood. 



Of course he is wholly wrong, both in his estimate 

 of the, value of the scientifically trained one and of his 

 own society. An association of farmers or rubber 

 planters that will work with an agricultural depart- 

 ment, criticizing, suggesting and informing is of the 

 greatest use, not only to the department itself but to 

 the individual members. Where the best results are 

 obtained it will be found such a commui/ity of purpose 

 is always pr.esent. 



THE CRUDE RUBBER OUTLOOK. 



T' 



'HERE is not at the present time that universal ex- 

 citement over crude rubber matters that existed a 

 year ago, when rubber was quoted at three dollars a 

 pound ; when it looked as if the motorist would have to 

 sell his car to buy his tires, when rubber bands 

 looked out of place on any desk not made of solid ma- 



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