April r, igio.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



229 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO., 



No. 395 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 

 CABLE ADDRESS: IRWORLD. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, HAWTHORNE HILL, 



EDITOR. ASSOCIATE. 



Vol. 42. 



APRIL I, 1910. 



No. I. 



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COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY 

 THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



Entered at New Y'ork postoffiee as mail matter of the second class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE READING MATTER. 



THE PROSPECT FOR CHEAPER RUBBER 



THE price of crude rubber received special attention 

 in the first issue of The India Rubber World, 

 something more than twenty years ago, for the reason 

 that, while 60 cents a pound had been considered a nor- 

 mal price, manufacturers were then being charged sev- 

 eral cents more. The question was, whether the indus- 

 try could survive the infliction. Of course there was 

 much trade gossip regarding '"speculation" as the cause 

 of the advanced price of rubber, and no little bitterness 

 in the minds of the consumers in consequence. 



At the London rubber auction on March 22. 1910 — a 

 function which no one is forced to attend, and where 

 every man is free to bid what he thinks proper, after an 

 inspection of the samples exposed — rubber actually 

 changed hands at 11 shillings [= $2.67] a pound. In 

 other words, $2 a pound more than the price which was 

 spreading consternation in the trade at the time The 

 India Rubber World was first getting on its feet. 



Of course so high a price as the record made at the 



last London auction cannot be maintained permanently. 



And of course the price was paid for a choice small lot 



i of specially prepared rubber. But the fact remains that 



J 11 shillings per pound has been paid for rubber, and we 



see no reason for believing that a still higher price will 



- not be paid for rubber before the end of summer. 



THE AMAZON RUBBER COXCRESS. 



OUR REPORT BEGINS IN THIS ISSUE. 



Of late the consumption of rubber has been actually 

 larger than the world's production, and at no time in 

 the history of the trade has the industry, in all lands. 

 been so active as today. The Amazon crop for 190')- Id 

 has been gathered, and it will be nearly a year before the 

 next crop will be available. Meanwhile the Eastern 

 plantations are making shipments regularly, on a con- 

 stantly advancing scale, but so far the plantation out- 

 put has been hardly more than "a drop in the bucket," 

 compared with the world's needs. What it will amount 

 to later is another story. 



Even the best plantation rubber will not always bring 

 11 shillings. Doubtless many planters will be pleased, 

 before The India Rubber World is twenty years older, 

 to get 2 shillings for their product, but they will make 

 money even at that price. 



Meanwhile there is not enough rubber "to go round." 

 This is a broad, general, proposition. "Speculation" of 

 course, is ever present in the rubber trade, as it is in 

 everv b r anch of trade in which the human race is inter- 

 ested. But speculation does not account for the advance 

 in the price of rubber from 60 cents, in 1889, to $2.67 in 

 1910. 



The India Rubber World has been the apostle of rub- 

 ber planting, from the beginning. It is today. Our po- 

 sition always has been that dependence upon forest prod- 

 ucts means the ultimate decadence of the rubber industry. 

 As our readers know, we have studied at first hand the 

 planting of rubber in the Far East, but the results there, 

 promising as they are, do not meet the requirements 

 of today. Hence our attention is turned now- to the 

 Amazon region — the home of the Hevea species — with 

 the idea that forest rubber must be for a long time yet 

 an important factor in meeting the world's demands for 

 a most important commodity. 



The very important distinction remains to be made, 

 however, that the term "forest rubber," in the generally 

 accepted sense, is ceasing to be applicable to the Hevcas 

 in South America. As our friend, Mr. Fischer, of the 

 Liverpool trade, said publicly some time ago, the well laid 

 out scringal in Brazil is already a "plantation." Already 

 the seringaes are sending to market every year more than 

 half the world's supply of rubber, and rubber which uni- 

 formly commands higher prices than any other — with the 

 exception of the carefully cleaned plantation product. 

 The next development on the Amazon will be the clear- 

 ing out of the forests now surrounding the wild trees 

 which already bring so many millions yearly into north 

 Brazil, and the planting of young Hevea trees in the 

 intervening spaces. Will it take time? Yes. Will it 

 cost money? Yes. But such considerations need not 

 deter the men who already own the naturally planted 

 trees which now furnish the world with the substantial 

 part of its supply of rubber. 



