420 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September i. 1910. 



Floating Island on the Amazon. 



From a practical standpoint the trouble about any rubber 

 planting concession in Brazil is that governors, like our own 

 presidents, normally last only four years. An unfriendly gov- 

 ernor may not be able to cancel a concession, but he can easily 

 interpret the various articles so that it would be valueless. 

 Not that there is any present indication of such change or such 

 attitude, but the time might come when such action would be 



My own hope was that the governments of both Para and 





>*v 



V - 



The Urucury Palm. 



1 for smoking rubber.] 



Native Coating Canvas Bag With Rubber Milk. 



Amazonas would remove the tax on plantation grown rubber 

 entirely for a series of years. That they refused to do, as there 

 were decided difficulties in the way. For example, wild rubber 

 prepared as is plantation rubber would be sure to appear, and if 

 a company owned both wild and planted rubber the temptation 

 would be to get most of both kinds upon the market without 

 an export duty. 



Nor is the clause placing the export duty of planted rubber 

 at one-half that of wild rubber an attractive proposition. It 

 should have been a definite sum like 5 or 10 cents a pound ; 

 or a definite percentage on the sales value of the rubber, say 

 of s or 10 per cent. Another thing, the idea of the planter run- 

 ning an industrial school or orphan asylum in connection with 

 a business venture will not appeal to any capitalist. It is more 

 than likely that these laws will be amended and simplified. In- 

 deed, their very presence is a decided advance, and a strong 

 symptom of the desire of the government to encourage planting 

 on a large scale. 



I was fortunate enough to know the acting director of the 

 Para Agricultural Experiment Station and get his ideas on 

 planting. He was a young American, was an instructor in botany 

 in an American university, and later at the head of an impor- 

 tant section in the United States department of agriculture. 

 More than any other he has studied the problem of rubber 

 planting in the state of Para. I quizzed him very searchingly, and 

 the following is his statement, almost verbatim, and it is worth 

 serious consideration : 



Although in itself the greatest rubber shipping port in the 

 world, the immediate vicinity of the city of Para seems never, 

 except by a few better informed and more far sighted than 

 ctlurs, to have been considered seriously as a factor in the 

 production of plantation rubber. Nevertheless, this district pos- 

 sesses advantages and opportunities afforded by none other, 

 and those seeking outlets for a profitable investment would do 

 well to investigate it further. 



The city's proximity to the sea and its natural advantages as 

 a port are so well known and its advantage in this respect over 

 upriver points, where higher freights would be unavoidable, are 

 so apparent that they may be passed over. Then Para pos- 

 sesses a railroad of 250 kilometers [=153 miles] in length, which 



