340 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July i, 1910. 



The Editor's Book Table. 



GOLD COAST. REPORT ON FORESTS. BY H. N. THOMPSON, 

 conservator of forests, Southern Nigeria. (Colonial Reports — Miscel- 

 laneous No. 66.) London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. 1910. 

 [Paper. 8vo. Pp. 238 + 24 plates. Price, is. id.] 



THE forest resources of the Gold Coast Colony, a British 

 possession in West Africa, lately have been studied with 

 great thoroughness by the expert whose name appears on 

 the title page of this report. The colony embraces upwards of 

 40,000 square miles, and is almost wholly covered by forests 

 which are rich in woods of value, but what is of particular in- 

 terest in this place is the fact that rubber yielding species are 

 found in every part of the colony. Rubber was first exported 

 from the Gold Coast in 1880, when 1,200 pounds were shipped 

 from Accra, which port gave a commercial designation for Gold 

 Coast rubber which is still recognized more or less in the trade. 



The export increased steadily until 1898, when no less than 

 5,984,984 pounds were recorded by the customs. So large a 

 figure has not been recorded in any subsequent year, the export 

 falling to 1,520,009 pounds in 1901. Later, however, the exports 

 have averaged about 3,600,000 pounds a year. This must be 

 regarded as a well sustained yield of forest rubber. The mainte- 

 nance of the trade is due to a gradual advance of the rubber 

 collectors in the hinterland, and the bringing under European 

 control of regions like Ashanti, which only a few years ago 

 were savagely opposed to the entrance of white men. 



Another element in the perpetuation of the Gold Coast rubber 

 trade is the fact that the product is largely tree rubber, derived 

 from the Funtumia elastica, known in different localities by such 

 native names as "ire," "ireh," "ireye," "ireyi," and so on. The 

 product has been known widely as "silk rubber." Mr. Thompson 

 finds that the adulteration of Funtumia rubber with less valuable 

 sorts and even with latices containing no rubber at all is com- 

 mon among the natives, and among the regulations which the 

 government has considered for the benefit of the rubber trade is 

 a prohibition of mixing the latices of the different trees and 

 plants. The enforcement of such regulation is difficult, how- 

 ever, owing to the fact that even inferior grades of rubber are 

 readily saleable though at a reduced price, and the suggestion is 

 made that a small export tax be placed upon rubber with the 

 view to affording funds for paying an official staff to supervise 

 the collection of rubber. 



The cultivation of Funtumia has been undertaken with success, 

 and experiments have been made with various exotic rubbers, 

 notably Hevea. Regarding tills species it is stated that as 

 regards growth and yield of rubber, it is superior to the native 

 Funtumia. besides being a more hardy type, but there is still 

 the uncertainty as to a sustained annual yield of latex. Another 

 native rubber tree in the Gold Coast is the Ficus Vogelii, the 

 product of which realizes in the markets about 80 per cent, of 

 the prices paid for Funtumia rubber. Ficus elastica has been 

 introduced to some extent but with disappointing results, the 

 yield being small and containing more resin than rubber from 

 the same species in the Far East. There are various species of 

 vine rubber in the colony, that which has proved most valuable 

 being Landolphia owariensis. 



RUBBER SHARE HANDBOOK. DETAILS OF COMPANIES OWNING 

 Rubber and Other Produce Companies in Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, 

 British North Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Africa, and South America. With 

 special chapters dealing with the development of the plantation industry. 

 London: The Financier and Bullionist, Limited. 1910. [Boards. 121110. 

 Pp. xxviii -f- 500. Price 2 shillings, net I 



The sixth edition of this useful and very complete book of 

 reference brings its record of rubber companies up to April 

 of the present year. The number of companies of which 

 statistics are given in the book is 467. The directors are 

 named of the companies registered in England and capital- 

 ized in sterling, and to a certain extent those of the "rupee" 



companies in the Far East. The list of directors embraces 

 776 names, many of the names being repeated; in fact a 

 single director in some cases will be found on the boards of 

 from ten to fifteen companies. An interesting feature of the 

 more recent development of plantation companies shown in 

 this handbook is the activity with which plantations are 

 being promoted in the Dutch East Indies. Java and Sumatra 

 appear to be no less attractive to the British for rubber 

 investment purposes than to Amsterdam and other centers 

 on the continent. 



THE A B C TO RUBBER PLANTING COMPANIES IN MALAYA, 

 their possible production, profits, and dividends for seven years. By M. 

 S. Parry, director Kuala Lumpur Rubber Co., Societe, Financiere des 

 Caoutchouc, etc., and E. M. Muraour. London: Fred'c. C. Mathieson & 

 Sons. 1910. [Boards. i2mo. Pp. xv + 140. Price, 2 shillings net.] 



The principal feature of this book, which, by the way, is 

 not meant to compete with other directories of planting com- 

 panies, but rather to supplement them, is a series of fore- 

 casts as to production, profits, and dividends for 140 com- 

 panies, carried out for seven years, or up to 1917. It might 

 seem, at first thought, a rash piece of business to predict the 

 profits of any business for even one year ahead, but the gen- 

 tlemen named on the title page have made an extensive study 

 of their subject, and in their introductory pages make a 

 plausible argument in behalf of the system on which their 

 forecasts are based. These appear to be conservative at least, 

 being based upon a maximum net price per pound of 5s. and 

 a maxiumum yield of 400 pounds per acre, even from the 

 oldest trees. Yet with these limitations we see predicted 

 for some of the larger companies for the current year such 

 dividends as 340 per cent., 169 per cent., 130 per cent., 173 

 per cent., 167 per cent., 135 per cent., 137 per cent., and so on. 

 It can at least be said for the book that it is interesting. 



SAFEGUARDS FOR THE PREVENTION OF INDUSTRIAL ACCI- 

 dents. Edited by David Van Schaack. Hartford: Aetna Life Insurance 

 Co. [1910.] [Paper. 8vo. Pp. 174. Price, 50 cents. 1 



It appears to us to be most reasonable that a company engaged 

 in insuring working men and others against accidents should 

 promote the study of safety devices and safeguards against 

 mishaps, both by employers and those who have to do with me- 

 chanical devices involving danger. It is evident from a study 

 of this handbook, which, by the way, does not claim to be com- 

 plete, that very many employes in factories endanger their own 

 safety by lack of proper care of themselves. So that it is in- 

 cumbent upon employers of labor to put such safeguards about 

 the machinery which they employ as to guard workingmen 

 from their own lack of caution. This book relates not only to- 

 the proper installation and safeguarding of machinery, but to 

 the proper sanitation of works and other means of protecting the 

 health of employes. There are also suggestions as to what to do 

 in case of accidents. There is little in this book relating to 

 rubber mill equipment, beyond the treatment of safety clutches 

 for calender rolls, but there is much of general application which 

 may well be worth reading in rubber factories, including, for 

 instance, the boxing in of driving belts. 



CAOUTCHOUCS BRESILIENS. LA "PARA FINE" D'AMAZONIE 

 (Hevea Brasiliensis). Par Gustave Van den Kerckhove, expert in caout- 

 chouc. Brussels: Ballieu, 1910. [Paper. 8vo. Pp. 23.] 



A comparison of conditions of production of Hevea rubber 

 on the Amazon and in the Far East, with a favorable showing 

 for the former region. ' 



REPORTS ON THE BOTANIC STATION, EXPERIMENT PLOTS, 

 and Agricultural School, Dominica. 1008-09. Barbados: Imperial Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture for the West Indies. 1909. [Paper. FoL 

 Pp. 41] 



Embraces comprehensive notes on experiments with india- 

 rubber of various species, under cultivation. 



