December 1, 1913.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



117 



conipctciit men there to report and advise. There are plenty to 

 be had here — men who have managed estates that have been 

 paying dividends for years. I don't think that many American- 

 owned properties in Central America have paid any yet, so I 

 leave you to draw your own conclusions. As a matter of fact, a 

 great many of the men you have had in charge Iiave had no real 

 knowledge at all of their business, not being planters. 



This is a very great pity, as it will tend to discourage tropical 

 enterprise in America. Most of the mistakes are made in the 

 estimates of probable results. I have seen the wildest and most 

 improbable statements made re some of these enterprises, and 

 they are all systematically undercapitalized — as far as working 

 capital goes. The costs of working are also grossly understated. 

 There is plenty of money to be made in tropical planting, prop- 

 erly organized and carried out, so that it is a pity that more 

 businesslike methods have not been employed. We have been at 

 the game for generations here, and really know something about 

 it, and we do not like to see our neighbors exploited in the way 

 that you have been. 



THE WATERHOUSE CO.'S NEW CO.\CE.SSION. 



One of the most interesting of recent developments in tlie 

 Malay Peninsula is the acquisition by the VVatcrhouse Co., of 

 I lonolulu — of which Albert Waterhouse is the president and 

 I'red T. P. Waterhouse the secretary — of a tract of 25,000 acres 

 in Johore, near the River Endau on the east coast of the penin- 

 sula, and not many hours distant from Singapore. It will be 

 recalled by people familiar with rubber planting in the middle 

 Kast that the Waterhouse brothers were the lirst Americans to 

 go into the planting of Hevea in this section. They have had two 

 rubber plantations for some years, but they are now planning 

 something on a vastly larger scale. Their concession is de- 

 scribed by the experts who have seen it as being extremely valu- 

 al)lc, consisting of undulating country with rich soil on excellent 

 harbor, the land near the water being well adapted to cocoanuts, 

 while that a little farther back is said to be admirably suited to 

 rubber. They have formed a company called The Endau Devel- 

 opment Co., for the purpose of opening up, clearing, and prop- 

 erly developing this great tract. 



The possibilities of rubber planting in the middle East were 

 brought home to the Waterhouse brothers l)y the series of letters 

 on that subject written by the editor of The Indi.v Rubber World 

 when he visited the middle and far East in 1905. On reading 

 these letters, they entered into communication with Mr. Pearson, 

 and secured his permission to reproduce this matter for distribu- 

 tion among those who might become interested in Eastern plant- 

 ing. They reproduced these letters in convenient form and circu- 

 lated a great number of copies, and this had the effect of calling 

 general attention among Americans in the East to rubber possi- 

 bilities in the Malay Peninsula and its neighborhood. 



OPTIMISM IX S.VR.WVAK. 

 By the way, a friend writing from Sarawak in Borneo takes 

 a very optimistic view of the possibilities of that location. He 

 writes : "There is no doubt that plantations in Sarawak give a 

 bigger yield than in the Federated Malay States or Ceylon and 

 this is due, I believe, to the huge rainfall we have here. I think 

 we shall always be able to produce at a shilling per pound, and 

 eventually when the trees get bigger, at 9 pence." 



MR. F. CROSBIE ROLES ADVOCATES THE "CESS." 

 Mr. F. Crosbie Roles, well known to the rubber men of 

 America, because of the prominent part he took in the Interna- 

 tional Rubber Exposition held in New York in the Fall of 1912, 

 took a decided stand in a letter he sent a little while ago to the 

 "Financier" of London in favor of a rubber cess — or, in other 

 words, a general imposition of a tax on all rubber producers^ 

 for the purpose of developing new uses for crude rubber. He 

 says : "I think it is generally recognized that a new industry, 

 especially, needs exploitation. If Eastern rubber producers could 



obtain and administer a rubber cess, the prospect of over-pro- 

 duction a few years hence would be pushed away into the remote 

 future." He believes that that is by far the most effective way 

 of insuring such a development of the manufacturing department 

 of the rubber industry that it will not be outstripped by the pro- 

 duction of the crude material. 



OIL TRACTORS ON RUBllER PLANTATIONS. 

 Oil tractors are proving of great value on rubber plantations. 

 In the dry season, when the ground in some plantations be- 

 comes so hard that a plow hauled by bullocks is of no value, the 

 oil tractor does its work admirably. Harrows can be attached 



Tr.actor .\t Work. 



to it 10 feet wide, which destroy the weeds and grasses that are 

 detrimental to the proper growth of the rubber trees, and plow 

 up the ground, loosening the soil so that moisture is more readily 

 absorbed and retained during the dry season. The item of fuel 

 expense is quite inconsiderable in view of the large amount of 

 territory these tractors can cover in a short time. They can be 

 operated very easily in a plantation where the trees are as much 

 as 15 feet apart. 



PRACTICAL TEST OF WICKHAM SMOKE CURE. 



The Ceylon Department >1 .Agriculture has sent to London a 

 consignment of 560 pounds rul)1)er prepared by the Wickham 



Rubber Prepared by the Wickh.vm Smoke Cure. 



smoke cure apparatus in response to a request from Mincing 

 Lane for a quantity sufficient for trial. An of?er was made of 

 4rf. per pound above the regular price of plantation at time of 

 settlement. The accompanying cut shows the rubber prepared 

 for packing. 



