144 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Janu \ky i, 1910". 



The Editor's Book Table. 



AGRH 1 I II RE IX THK TR0PI1 S. AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE. 

 By .1. C. Will!*, u. D , director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, 



Ceylon; organising; vice-president Ceylon Agricultural Society; editor of 

 The Trop\ Uurist. Lin the Cambridge Biological Series.] Cam- 



hriilr. University Tress. 1909. [Cloth. 8vo. Pp. xvm. -j- 222. Price 

 7 shillings.] 



NO attempt has been made by Dr. Willis to write a book 

 for the practical man to use in connection with his field 

 work. Whoever will may buy useful treatises on grow- 

 ing onions, or cocoanuts, or what not, and profit from intelligent 

 use of them. But our author has confined himself rather to 

 certain general principles underlying agriculture — something 

 which neither the individual agriculturist nor people in general 

 in the past have always recognized as having an existence. Al- 

 most from the beginning of the human race there has been 

 tillage of some kind, necessity having impelled men to labor 

 to tempt food products from the soil. Vet even today the 

 remuneration of agricultural effort on the whole is limited vastly 

 by the failure of those engaged in it to study means of lighten- 

 ing labor, or the value of cooperation in lessening costs. 



Such considerations are foremost in this work by Dr. Willis, 

 and particularly with regard to tropical agriculture, in which so 

 many things are to be considered that differ from farming in 

 New England, for example, or in any of the countries of Europe. 

 Agriculture in the tropics involves the production of commodities 

 which for the most part are not thought of in other climates, 

 in connection with farm work, but rather as the wares of the 

 grocer or chemist or the like — as coffee, tea, sugar, spices, quinine, 

 opium, and so on. 



The latest notable addition to the products of agriculture in 

 the tropics is india-rubber, which up to twenty years ago was 

 solely a forest product. It is the inclusion of india-rubber among 

 the commodities discussed by Dr. Willis, and the important 

 relation which this gentleman, in an official capacity, has sus- 

 tained to the scientific culture of rubber, that leads to a review 

 of his book in these pages. It is distinctly not a manual of 

 rubber planting, nor a guide to that industry any more than 

 to the production of rice or cocoanuts. But whatever tropical 

 products may be demanded by the peoples of the temperate 

 zone-., the principles underlying their growth are the same, and 

 in outlining these principles our author has conferred a service 

 of very great value. 



Under the American system, the tiller of the soil is its owner, 

 and, as a rule, each farm is self-contained and self-sustaining, 

 producing the chief part of the food required for the farmer's 

 family, and in addition a specific crop for sale — grain, or cotton, 

 "i 1 liacco, or the like — the proceeds of which pay for clothing 

 and the other wants of the family, including the means of edu- 

 cation, besides the general sustenance and development of the 

 farm establishment. This system extends over millions of square 

 miles of territory, employing more than half the population of 

 the United States, and giving rise to countless rural communi- 

 ties of intelligent and vigorous people, from whom are recruited 

 the leaders of industry, commerce, finance, and the government. 

 It would be disastrous to the world if the existing American 

 agricultural system, with its salutary results, should disappear. 

 But no such possibility is meant to be suggested here. 



Agriculture in the tropics under the system just referred to, 

 however, is out of the question. It is to be considered that the 

 products discussed by Dr. Willis cannot be brought into existence 

 outside the tropics. Also, that their production must always 

 be the result of the labor of tropical peoples. A third point is 

 that the direction of such enterprise on any scientific or econom- 

 ical basis, must be in the hands of other than tropical peoples. 

 Being a native of England, our author naturally uses the word 



"Europeans" in referring to the leaders of modern tropical 

 planting. 



Not the least important feature of this book is its pointing out 

 tin difference between the results of native agriculture in the 

 Far East and those attained by the employment of coolies under 

 European direction. A parallel might be found in comparing the 

 quality and cost of cloth as between the old time household 

 employment of distaff and loom and the modern factory system. 

 Or, again : What would be the cost of steel to-day, if every 

 man who might need some were to produce it in leisure mo- 

 ments in his back yard, instead of buying it from such central- 

 ized mammoth establishments as the United States Steel Cor- 

 poration, or Krupp's, in Germany? 



This article is not based upon quotations from Dr. Willis, but 

 is suggested by reading his book. We are interested in india- 

 rubber, and to sum him up, this material is produced more 

 economically by tropical labor, on a large scale, under European 

 direction, than if this or that or the other coolie should be 

 depended upon to bring to market now and then a few pounds 

 derived from his undirected labor. 



Dr. Willis, by the way, makes no suggestion as to any change 

 of agricultural methods outside of the tropics. A study of his 

 work, however, suggests that, ultimately, the world's dependence 

 for wheat, for example, will not be upon the small individual 

 producers in this or that or another country, but upon large 

 concentrated enterprises, managed by boards of directors in 

 financial centers represented on immense plantations by capable 

 resident managers. Boards of directors today supply the world 

 with steel and cotton and woolen goods ; they are coming to 

 supply the world with india-rubber ; why not with wheat and 

 whatever else the world requires that comes out of the soil? 

 If this should prove an economical necessity it will come about, 

 of course, but the American agricultural system — and what 

 compares with it in other countries — may be depended upon 

 to endure, just as it did when American housewives ceased to 

 spin and weave and began to buy drygoods from the "depart- 

 ment store." 



VEHICLES OF THE AIR. A POPULAR EXPOSITION OF MODERN 

 Aeronautics. With Working Drawings. By Victor Lougheed, member of 

 the Aeronautic Society, formei member of the Society of Automobile 

 Engineers, former editor of Motor - - - Chicago: The Reilly & Brit- 

 ton Co. [1909.] [Cloth. Large 8vo. Pp. 479 -j- plates. Price, $2.50.] 



The appearance of this book contemporaneously with the 

 Twentieth Anniversary Number of The India Rubber World 

 suggests the fact that, twenty years ago, nothing could have been 

 printed in a trade paper in any country more apt to offend the 

 intelligence of its readers than a reference to human flight as a 

 practical proposition. The India Rubber World, though never 

 inimical to the idea of what people nowadays call "automobiles," 

 was eight years old before these new fangled machines were 

 referred to in its pages as filling a place in practical life. Today 

 one may order an aeroplane with the same assurance of having 

 the order filled as if he should require an automobile, or a boot- 

 jack, or a dozen eggs. 



What is more, whoever will, may employ a sky pilot to assist 

 him in navigating the air in one of the new vehicles with safety. 

 The fact is that the "vehicles of the air" have come to stay; 

 manufacturers of them in America and in Europe advertise them 

 as definitely as makers of sewing machines or watches advertise 

 their products, and they are getting orders. At the second 

 Paris Aeroneautical Salon, in October last, orders were booked 

 for no monoplanes of a single make. The mere fact of the ap- 

 pearance of Mr. Lougheed's substantial volume is convincing that 

 the flying machine interest has reached an important stage. And 

 as this article is being written one happens to see in a leading 



