April i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



237 



congresses, and that the association had already decided upon 

 a new congress at Manaos in 1912. From what developed at the 

 session, however, it is possible that Para may have a rubber 

 congress next year, as a sort of intermediate session. 



THE FINAL CONCLUSIONS. 



As has been mentioned, the results of the discussions during 

 the week were formulated in a series of "conclusions," adopted 

 at the last ordinary session, by a vote of the Congress. These 

 follow : 



1. 

 The Congress looks upon the planting of the rubber tree in Ama- 

 zonia as an urgent and unavoidable necessity. 



II. 



For the encouragement of such planting the Congress considers the 

 following measures useful: 



a. The making of model plantations of Hcvca rubber, by the 

 states, municipalities and agricultural and commercial associations, 

 on their own account, and for commercial purposes. 



b. Free concessions by governments of the lands intended for that 

 cultivation; reduction of export duties on cultivated rubber. 



c. Propaganda through the press and by circulars and pamphlets 

 showing the advantages of planting, and giving practical advice upon 

 the means of making the plantations. 



d. Broad distribution of seeds and plants of the Hevea Brasiliensis. 



III. 



Regarding the seringaes [rubber estates! already exploited, repre- 

 senting an enormous capital, already productive, and which should 

 not be neglected, the Congress advises the present owners: 



a. To interplant and to replant the existing cstrades [paths]. 



b. To plant in open spaces in the forests or in clearings made in 

 them. 



IV. 



The Congress recommends to the governments to make an extensive 

 propaganda in Europe, and particularly in the United States of 

 America, on the advantage of investing capital in the rubber industry 

 in the Amazon valley. 



V. 



In order to encourage the establishment of new plantations of 

 rubber trees, the Congress advises the federal governments, and espe- 

 cially those of Para, Amazonas, and Matto-Grosso, to make a uniform 

 price for the lands intended for the extractive industry and to limit 

 themselves to the lowest prices at present ruling in those states. 



VI. 



The Congress advises the governments to protect by special laws 

 the caucho trees (Castilloa Ulei) and recommends at the same time 

 the maintenance of forest preserves in which it shall be forbidden 

 to cut these or other trees, in accordance with the ideas expressed 

 by Mr. J. A. Mendes, in his work entitled "A Produccao do Caucho." 



VII. 



The Congress does not advise anything, in the present state of our 

 knowledge of the cultivation of caucho and other inferior kinds of 

 rubber, to private parties, in the face of the unquestionable superiority 

 of the Hevea. 



VIII. 



The Congress entirely agrees with the opinions of Dr. Jacques 

 Huber, expounded in his treatise "Processos de Extraccao," on the 

 methods of tapping rubber trees. 



IS. 



The Congress advises the governments of the states of Para, Ama- 

 zonas, and Matto-Grosso to send competent persons to countries 

 where the cultivation of the Hevea has been successfully tried, in order 

 to study and verify by sight the methods there employed, either to 

 cultivate or to prepare the latex and the rubber, as also the extensive 

 distribution of any report presented by such agents. 



The Congress advises the governments of Para, Amazonas and 

 Matto-Grosso, and of the continguous republics, to establish one or 

 more permanent expositions of india-rubber, of an instructive or 

 educational character, managed by competent parties and having an- 

 nexed physiological and chemical laboratories. 



XI. 



The Congress, in accord with unquestionable authorities on the 

 subject like Mr. Henry C. Pearson, for one, advises the serin guetros 

 [rubber planters] not to abandon the smoking process. 



This process may be yet improved upon by means of simple and 

 inexpensive mechanisms, that would lighten the work of the serin- 

 gueiro and at the same time protect his health. In this connection, 



the attention of every one interested is called to the machine ex- 

 hibited by the firm of Danin & Mello, of Para, which seems to fulfill 

 the necessary requisites. 



For use on planted rubber trees, we call the attention of those 

 interested to the machine invented by Commendador Simao da 

 Costa. 



XII. 



Meanwhile the Congress can but applaud the efforts made to dis- 

 cover new processes of coagulation, an'd it recommends that the 

 governments and mercantile associations offer prizes for the best 

 processes, especially for the coagulation of the latex of rubber. It 

 must be seen to that all attempts in this sense should aim at pro- 

 ducing a better product from caucho than is obtained by fumigation. 



XIII. 



The Congress absolutely condemns all and every process of 

 coagulation by acids or by alum, because unfortunately such processes 

 depreciate the value of the latex of the Hevea, to the serious- injury 

 of the manufacturer and of the state exchequer. 



XIV. 



The Congress earnestly urges the governments and associations to 

 enact repressive regulations against fraud in the preparation of 

 rubber, including the mixture of the latex of different species of 

 gummiferous trees, and the wrongful designation of type or origin. 



XV. 



The Congress calls attention of the governments and of merchants 

 to the urgent necessity of organizing a series of well-defined grades 

 of the different qualities of india-rubber, taking into consideration 

 for this classification, not alone the physical qualities, but also the 

 origin of the rubber. The standards of those grades should be kept 

 in the permanent expositions mentioned in Article X. 



OUR EDITOR'S LECTURES. 



As part of the program of the Congress, the Editor of The 

 India Rubber World gave two lectures in the Amazonas The- 

 ater, on the evenings of February 23 and 24, both illustrated with 

 lantern slides. The journal Amazonas of February 24 reported 

 as follows: 



"At 9 o'clock last night, in the Amazonas Theater, occurred 

 the lecture of our distinguished colleague, Mr. H. C. Pearson. 

 As we had previously announced, the conference turned upon 

 'The Planting of Hevea in the Orient,' and 94 views were ex- 

 hibited of landscapes in Ceylon and Malaya of Hevea plantations, 

 scenes of Oriental life, and so on. In his first speech Mr. 

 Pearson expressed his regret at not knowing the Portuguese 

 language, as he would have been delighted to speak directly to 

 the people of Manaos, by whom he had been so well received. 

 The lecture was well attended and the explanations given with 

 the illustrations were followed with great attention. Our dis- 

 tinguished colleague, Mr. J. A. Mendes, of A Provincia do Para, 

 proved an excellent interpreter. 



"The second lecture of our esteemed colleague, Mr. H. C. 

 Pearson, takes place today at the Amazonas Theater, at 9 p. m. 

 The lecture will relate to 'The Manufacture of Rubber Goods 

 in the United States.' For this lecture the Commercial Associa- 

 tion will distribute only the 'frizas' and part of the boxes. The 

 lecture will be illustrated. The remainder of the tickets will be 

 given by the Association to the public." 



NOTES FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 



An interesting incident connected with the Congress was the 

 planting of rubber trees in one of the beautiful parks of Manaos — 

 in the Matriz Garden, to the right of and facing the Cathedral. 

 The planting was accompanied by appropriate ceremonies, the 

 Governor planting the first, President Scholz the second, the' 

 Editor of The India Rubber World the third, Dr. Huber of the 

 Para museum the fourth, and so on until twenty-six were set 

 out. These were seedlings, one meter tall, from seeds brought by 

 Governor Bit,tencourt from Ayapua, on the Purus. 



The Editor of The India Rubber W 7 orld, on arriving at 

 Manaos, was'met by a committee from the Commercial Associa- 

 tion, with the announcement that he was to be the guest of that 

 body during his stay, and, the choice being left to him of a 

 stopping place, he chose the home of Mr. F. H. Sanford, man- 

 ager of A. H. Alden & Co., Limited, much to the envy of the 



