THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October 1, 1913. 



product, but rather by improving and standardizing its 

 qualit}-, and by such intelligent exploitation as will 

 convince the purchaser that it really possesses the 

 qualit\- the planters claim for it. 



One suggestion has been made, however, for tempo- 

 rarily limiting the production of plantation rubber 

 which bears a very sensible aspect, and that is a sug- 

 gestion that the planters refrain frcjiii lapping for a 

 brief season — say for two weeks. This would tempo- 

 rarily reduce the market supi)ly and thus probably in- 

 crease the selling price. .And in addition to that, it 

 would undoubtedly be beneficial to the vast majority 

 of plantation trees, most of which are lapped at an 

 immature age. A respite of a few w-eeks from tapping 

 would without question improve most of the trees and 

 also the quality of rubber subsequently made from 

 their latex. At any rate, here is a suggestion, the exe- 

 cution of which would tend to yield the planter a little 

 better price for the time being, and would give him 

 better rubber in the future. 



But, viewing the plantation situation as a whole, the 

 president of the Kepitigalla Rubber Estates expressed 

 the right idea in his recent annual address to the stock- 

 holders when he said that the company was basing all 

 its operations on the assumption that they were not 

 going to get a ver}- much higher price than that ruling 

 at the present time. In fact, wise companies \\ill base 

 their operations on the assumption that they are going 

 to get gradually lower prices. Plantation enterprises 

 which have been well conceived and properly managed 

 can afford to do this; and in the case of plantations 

 which are laboring under any obvious disadvantages, 

 either of excessive capitalization or of unfavorable 

 physical conditions, it will in time probably be the 

 ancient sad refrain of "'the devil take the hindermost." 



HEVEA PLANTING SUCCESSFUL IN MEXICO. 



A X extremely interesting letter from Mr. J. C. 

 ^ ^ Harvey, of Vera Cruz, j\Iexico, appears on an- 

 other page of this issue, in which he recites his experi- 

 ences in planting Hcvea in that country. He describes 

 the results obtained from a number of seeds secured from 

 the botanical gardens in Singapore, the trees from which 

 were six years old last spring. As they had then at- 

 tained a circumference of between 19 and 26 inches, they 

 were tapped, and with most satisfactory results. Samples 

 of the rubber obtained have been sent to Xew York and 

 pronounced equal to the best plantation product of the 

 East. 



Mr. Harvey says that the poorly developed heads, 

 yellow foliage, atrophied branches and dead tops, not 

 infrequently seen in the CastUloa, were entirely absent 

 in the case of these Hei'ca trees ; moreover, he i)ro- 

 nounces the Hevea much less exacting in its soil require- 

 ments than the CastUloa. His opinion — based upon his 

 years of personal observation — is that there are large 

 areas in Mexico and also in Central America where, if 

 territory is selected with proper care with reference to 

 temperature and rainfall, the Hevca can be profitably 

 culti\ated. 



As the question of Hei'ca planting in Mexico is one 

 that has received a great deal of attention during the 

 last decade, a widespread interest will be felt in the re- 

 sults of Mr. Harvey's experiments as given in this letter, 

 and his optimistic conclusions will be most encouraging 

 to other Mexican planters, who have long felt that Hevea 

 culture in that country, under right conditions, had great 

 possibilities. 



NEW WORK FOR MOTORCYCLE TIRES. 



r^RODUCERS and manufacturers of rubber who are 

 •*• very anxious to see new avenues opened up by 

 which its consumption can be materially increased will 

 be pleased to hear of the enterprise of certain riders of 

 motorcycles, who, if they have not found a new use for 

 rubber, have at least discovered a way in which the rub- 

 ber in motorcycle tires can be consumed with consider- 

 ably greater rapidity. Every well-balanced man will re- 

 member the exhilaration he felt in the coasting days of 

 his boyhood in the country, when the sled arrived at 

 one of those raised places in the road technically known 

 as "thank-you-ma'ams," which shot the sled with its 

 passengers up into the air to come down again some 

 distance farther down the hill — whether right side up 

 or wrong side up no one particularly cared. Now the 

 motorcyclists have found that they have the same agree- 

 able sensation when coasting down hill on their machines 

 and coming to these selfsame water-breaks: and "jump- 

 ing-the-jumps" is reported as a motorcycle sport of grow- 

 ing ])opularity. If they are going rapidly enough the 

 machine, with the rider, is projected into space to some 

 considerable distance, 20 or 30 feet, as the case may be ; 

 and it is fairly obvious that when they reach the earth 

 again the impact is a great strain upon the tire, and 

 that many a tire which under normal usage might have 

 gone on for another thousand miles is likely to come to 

 grief, and thus release another new motorcycle tire from 

 the dealer's stock. 



Just how this new sport will affect the mortality rate 

 among the riders it is yet too early to tabulate, but the 

 effect on the tires is not open to question and is alto- 

 gether to the satisfaction of the luanufacturer. 



