January 1, 1921 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



293 



Suarez Hermanos, the most powerful of all the Bolivian rub- 

 ber companies, has its home offices in London and also has a re- 

 ceiving and forwarding station at Para. The Bolivian headquar- 

 ters of the Suarez interests are located at Cachuela Esperanza, 

 a short distance above Villa Bella, on the Beni, at which point 

 are large stores and warehouses. The rubber fields extend along 

 the Beni to Riberalta and up the Madre de Dios to the Peruvian 

 frontier. In addition the company has nearly 2,000,000 hectares 

 on the Orton and its tributaries, besides large properties on the 

 Acre and the Abuna. Altogether it possesses nearly 10,000,000 

 hectares. About 60 per cent of the rubber sent through Villa 

 Bella is consigned by it. The total resources of this firm are said 

 to aggregate about 50,000,000 bolivianos. 



The German firm of Alfredo W. Barber & Co. has its central 

 office in Cochabamba, with branches in Trinidad, Guayaramerin, 

 and at several points in the Itenez country, where it possesses 

 large gomales. It also has properties in the Abuna and Mamore 

 districts. 



A long-established German company, Zeller, Villinger & Co., 

 has rubber properties scattered from the Beni country to the upper 

 Itenez region. It has houses at Riberalta, Guayaramerin, Baures, 

 and Magdalena (Itenez), Santa Cruz, Trinidad, and Puerto 

 Suarez (Rio Paraguay). 



Brailard & Co., a French company, with headquarters at Ri- 

 beralta, owns gomales in the Beni and along some of the rivers 

 of the Territory of Colonias. 



Another French company, known as Societe Picollet, was 

 founded in 1910 with a capital of 2,500,000 francs (1 franc = 19.3 

 cents normal exchange), which has been increased to about 3,- 

 500,000 francs. The center of operations of this firm is in the 

 Abuna district, with a trading house at Manoa, at the mouth of 

 the Abuna. 



The trading house of Guillermo Demmer is located at Riberalta 

 and owns gomales in northern Colonias. 



The Sociedad Comercial Matto Grosso y Bolivia, which is the 

 German firm of Stoffen, Schuack, Miiller & Co., has trading sta- 

 tions at Guayaramerin, Santa Cruz, Puerto Suarez, Corumba 

 (Brazil), and at certain points in the Itenez region. Most of its 

 rubber properties are situated in the Itenez. 



Still another German firm, Komarek & Bruckner, owns gomales 

 in the Itenez and trading houses at Magdalena and Baures. 



The rubber lands of the English Anglo-Bolivian Rubber Estates 

 (Limited) are situated in the basin of the Rio Blanco, in the 

 northern part of the Department of Santa Cruz. Its chief center 

 of operations is Concepcion, in the Province of Velasco. It 

 formerly took out most of its rubber through Puerto Suarez and 

 the Rio Paraguay, but recently closed the former post. 



The Bolivian, Nicanor G. Salvatierra, has large gomales in the 

 Madre de Dios, Abuna, and Beni. 



Besides these interests, there are scores of others with rubber 

 estates, some of them aggregating over 200,000 hectares of land. 



METHODS OF GATHERING 



The methods of gathering the rubber used by the Bolivian 

 seringueiro (extractor and coagulator) have become too familiar 

 to the reading public to need further explanation in these columns. 

 Daily tapping is generally practised and either hatchet or knife 

 is used. The herring-bone system in which the knife is used is 

 generally believed to be better for the tree than the deep incision 

 made when using the hatchet. The chief trouble in the rubber 

 country has sprung from labor questions. There has been a 

 manifest improvement in the condition of the rubber gatherers 

 in the past few years, though they have suffered from the rise 

 in prices of necessities. 



CLASSIFICATION OF RUBBER 



On the arrival of a consignment of rubber at Manaos or Para, 

 a bolacha or sample ball is cut through several layers with a knife 



for the purpose of classifying the lot. Although the rubber is 

 generally shipped as of two classes, fine or ordinary, there are 

 eight classes in this preliminary inspection, namely ; fina, fina 

 fraca, entrefina, entre-fina-fraca, sernamby en rama, sernamby 

 virgen, sernamby de caucho, and caucho. The rubber known as 

 fine hard Para is the prime product of the latex of the Hevea 

 tree. Sernamby is second-quality rubber, although a product of 

 the Hevea, as it contains impurities which decrease its value. It 

 is sometimes made of the residue after the preparation of the 

 fine Para, or if rain has fallen in the cups with the latex the 

 product will be classified as sernamby. Caucho is the product 

 of the caucho tree and is an altogether lower grade of rubber. 



PLANTATION COMPETITION 



The rapid development of the East Indian plantations has seri- 

 ously threatened the Amazonian rubber industry, which includes, 

 of course, that of Bolivia, but the South American rubber in- 

 terests have done little to meet it, only a few prominent rubber 

 growers having planted trees to replace the gradually disappear- 

 ing wild growth. Owing to their more economical methods the 

 plantations have rapidly gained control of the world rubber mar- 

 ket ; since 1912 the price per pound of plantation rubber has been 

 consistently a little lower than that of fine hard Par4. 



EXPORTS OF RUBBER 



The exports of rubber from Bolivia in 1918 were 2,860,509 

 kilos (1 kilo := 2.2 pounds) of fine valued at 8,272,579 bolivianos 

 (1 boliviano — $0,389), and 1,427,005 kilos of ordinary, valued 

 2,765,463 bolivianos. In 1911, rubber exports constituted 22.89 

 per cent of the total value of exports from Bolivia, while in 

 1918 the percentage had fallen to 6.04. 



The increasing importance of the United States as a buyer 

 of Bolivian rubber is shown by the following table, which gives 

 the percentage taken by the chief countries of destination since 

 1912: 



Countries 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 



Per Per Per Per Per Per Per 



Cent Cent Cent Cent Cent Cent Cent 



United States.. 2.30 3.7 9.4 91.7 91.45 83.98 84.22 



Germany 30.2 17.8 10.75 .3 



Belgium 12.5 8.9 3.5 



France 9.5 18.15 12.9 1.4 2.27 6.81 7.15 



Great Britain . . 45.5 50.9 63.45 6.6 4.08 6.52 3.53 



MAPS 



Maps which show the location and extent of all rubber prop- 

 erties in Bolivia are in possession of the Latin-American Division 

 of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Department 

 of Commerce, at Washington, D. C, and loan copies may be 

 obtained from this source by persons or companies interested 

 in the subject. 



BALATA IN SURINAM 



Recently, subscriptions for balata territory by auction took place 

 for the first time in Surinam. There was no demand for these 

 territories at the usual concession duty of 4J4 Dutch cents per 

 hectare. Only two firms bid, the Kersten concern offering 0.6- 

 cent per hectare, and H. G. Bauer, whose bid was 0.5-cent. 



The Kersten concern got the territories which are situated 

 between the Coesewyne and the Saramacca and have an area of 

 154,300 hectares. 



During the four months ended April, 1920, the exports of 

 balata from this colony amounted to 107,324 kilograms, as against 

 113,417 kilograms during the corresponding period of 1919. This 

 shows a decrease of 6,093 kilograms. The rubber exports during 

 the same period in 1920 totaled 1,361 kilograms. 



Imports of india rubber and cutta percha into the Serb- 

 Crote-Slovene State during 1919 were 759,031 kilos (1 kilo 

 equals 2.2 pounds), valued at 48,265,630 dinars. The par value 

 of the dinar is $0,193 United States currency. 



