43. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September i, 1910. 



The Obituary Record. 



JOHN B. CARRUTHERS. 



IT is with great regret that the death is recorded here of Mr. 

 John Bennett Carruthers, F. r. s. e., f. l. s., assistant director 

 of agriculture of Trinidad. -Mr. C'arruthers returned from a 

 visit to the island of Tobago suffering from an attack of fever, 

 which was followed by pneumonia, the end coming on July 17. 



The subject of this sketch was the younger son of Dr. William 

 Carruthers, f.r. S., some time keeper of botany at the British 

 Museum. He was educated at Dulwich College, in England, 

 from which he passed to the Royal School of Mines, and later 

 to Griefswold University, in Germany. At the latter institution 

 he developed the interest in botany that was to shape his suc- 

 cessful career. 



Leaving the university, Mr. Carruthers became assistant to his 

 father, who then held the post of consulting botanist to the 

 Royal Agricultural Society, and distinguished himself by his 

 work in testing seeds and the study of diseases of cultivated 

 plants. Subsequently he tilled many positions of importance in 

 the line of work which he had laid out for himself and made 

 numerous contributions of value to botanical literature. In time 



Trinidad as assistant director of agriculture. His heart was 

 in the Malay States and he hated the thought of change, but, like 

 a good soldier, he obeyed. Had be wished to leave the govern- 

 ment service and take any one of a score of remunerative posi- 

 tions with Malaysian planting companies, he could in a short 

 time have retired with a fortune. His profession, however, and 

 his loyalty to the service prevented this. 



In Trinidad he attacked problems there with intense enthusi- 

 asm and with absolutely no thought of sparing himself. His 

 desire was to bring about some method of extracting the maxi- 

 mum amount of latex from the Castilloa tree without injury. 

 He hoped, as long as there were large areas of Castilloa planted, 

 to be able to make that tree nearly as great a profit producer as 

 the Hevea. In the last chat that the writer had with Mr. Car- 

 ruthers, only a few months ago in Port of Spain, Mr. Carruthers 

 said: 



"I do not want this for my own glory, as that is the very 

 last thing I am looking for. But I do want to see the Castilloa 

 planters win out on a large scale, and I believe that with the 

 proper method of collection they can do it." 



Frank C. Howlett. 



John B. Carruthers. 



1 [enry O. Canfh I D 



he found himself in Ceylon, in the government service, and later 

 in the Federated Malay States. His last work was done in the 

 British West Indies. 



Mr. Carruthers was in his forty-second year, having been born 

 in January, 1869. He married Frances Helen, daughter of the 

 late Mr. \. B. Inglis, of Calcutta and Edzell, Forfarshire, Scot- 

 land. 



Mr. Carruthers was in many respects a very unusual man. His 

 ambition was wholly in the line of his profession, which was 

 that of mycologist, or plant and tree doctor. What he did in dis- 

 cing the origin of certain cacao diseases and stamping them 

 out is a mattei oi record among tropical planters the world 

 1 When canker developed in the Para rubber plantations in 

 Ion, \l I irruthers was one of the first to devise means for 

 checking it and finally stamping it out. His whole thought after 

 he became director of agriculture and government botanist for 

 the Federated Malay States was for the furtherance of scientific 

 planting. He was particularly interested in rubber planting, and 

 did much for the great plantations that have since proved so 

 profitable. 



A little over a year ago the home government sent him to 



That wish to be of value to the rubber planter and to be 

 an honor to his profession was his one ambition. In bis death 

 the British government has lost a most capable servant, while 

 nil. her planters the world over have lost one of their truest 

 friends. 



HENRY 0. CANFIELD. 



Henry O. Canfield, who died at Bridgeport, Connecticut, on 

 July 25, was born in Naugatuck, in that state, November 9, 1847, 

 being a son of Jared Huntington Canfield and Mary Andrews. 

 At the age of 13 he accompanied his parents to Europe, where 

 he remained for several years, his education being completed by 

 private tutors in France and Germany. Returning to America, he 

 found employment with A. T. Stewart & Co., dry goods mer- 

 chants in New York, going later with The Diamond Match Co., 

 at Detroit, .Michigan, and then to a railroad position at Pekin, 

 Illinois. He remained in the transportation business for several 

 years, rising to the position of chairman of the Illinois Railroad 

 Freight Association. 



The father of H. O. Canfield [see sketch in The India Rubber 

 World, May 15, 1892 — page 241] was a friend of Charles Good- 

 year, with whom he did much important work in rubber at 



