314 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Fedkuary 1, 1921 



deep sea use nothing has been found to take the place of 

 gutta percha as a dielectric. The major part of the 

 world's supply conies from the Malay Archipelago, and 

 there British interests are credited with being in com- 

 plete control of the output. Almost all the sul)marine 

 cables in the world are made in England, that country 

 being practically the only one that has developed a cable 

 manufacturing industry of importance. 



Americans have long cherished the hupc ui making 

 cables on their own account and growing gutta percha 

 in the Philippines, but such expectation is not likely to 

 be realized in the near future. Soil and climatic condi- 

 tions may, indeed, be favorable in the American insular 

 possessions in the Far East for the production of gutta 

 percha, but the Palaquium, unlike the Hevea, is a tree 

 that matures slowly, and many years would be required 

 to develop a plantation that would yield a fair return 

 on the large amount of labor and capital that would be 

 involved in such an enterprise. 



AMERICAN OVERSEAS PLANTATIONS 



WITH a surplus of raw rubber on their hands, vari- 

 ously estimated at from 75.500 to 100,000 tons, not 

 counting stocks held in warehouses, much of it bought at 

 from 40 to 50 cents a pound; and holding 159,000 acres 

 of rubber plantations in the East, costing between $15,- 

 000,000 and $16,000,000 and now worth double that 

 amount, American rubber manufacturers are not, as some 

 of their overseas friends fancy, at all indifferent to the 

 depression which has been troubling the foreign rubber 

 producers. Indeed, American rubber concerns, with a 

 plantation investment of about 3 per cent of the total 

 money expended for the raising of rubber, yet consuming 

 70 per cent of the world's output, fully realize that their 

 interests are identical with those of the rubber growers; 

 and they are ready to cooperate in any proper manner to 

 stabilize the price of the raw product. Signs are not 

 wanting, too, that in the near future, with the rapid in- 

 crease in the foreign trade of the United States, other 

 American investors besides rubber manufacturers will be 

 making ventures in a large way in rubber planting in the 

 East, as well as taking an active part in various big com- 

 mercial enterprises overseas, just as the British have long 

 done in all parts of the globe. 



The large American plantation holdings are divided 

 among four corporations. The United States Rubber Co, 

 has put $10,000,000 into Sumatra, having 43,000 acres 

 bearing, 11,000 planted but not bearing, and 63,000 re- 

 served, totalling 117,000 acres. Thus it owns and operates 

 the largest single rubber plantation in the world, and yet 

 the product falls far short of the requirement for its 

 forty-one factories in the United States, sixteen in Can- 

 ada, and one in England. The Goodyear Tire & Ruliber 

 Co. has invested about $4,000,000 in 20,000 acres in 

 Sumatra, of which 2,000 are bearing, 9,000 planted but 

 not bearing, and 9.000 cleared but not planted. The Man- 



hattan Rubber .Manufacturing Co. owns 2,UO0 acres 

 valued at aijoul $500,000 in Java, 1,200 of which are 

 bearing, and 800 planted; while the Continental Rubber 

 Co. owns 20,000 acres in Sumatra on which about $1.- 

 000,000 has been spent, 2,000 acres being planted but not 

 bearing, 2,000 acres cleared but not planted, and 16.000 

 reserved. 



RUBBER PLANTATION CONSERVATION 



TO AVEKT soil exhaustion and insure steady yield the 

 farmer rotates crops but to the rubber planter such 

 recourse is not feasible. Hence must he depend almost 

 wholly upon inherent soil fertility, manuring, careful cul- 

 tivation, and judicious tapping. Naturally the question 

 arises, granted a deep, rich soil, maj- not forced growth 

 and especially severe draughts on the latex ultimately 

 lessen the fruit fulness of even the most fertile soil? Ex- 

 perts, however, declare that even three decades of plant- 

 ing have not yet shown any perceptible effect on the soil 

 itself. But a marked decadence is shown in many of the 

 first rubber trees planted, trees that should now be in 

 their prime, and all through mistreatment. In the boom 

 days a great number were hurriedly planted among fungi- 

 infested jungle stumps that induced root troubles, and 

 since then too eager latex gatherers have fairly bled 

 them to death. Like poor humans, overworked, they got 

 so weakened that when the "brown bast" came their low 

 \-itality left them an easy prey. 



Happily, a more enlightened policy is now pursued by 

 ])rogressive planters. Excessive tapping has been found 

 to be akin to killing the goose that laid the golden tgg, 

 and is taboo on all well-regulated estates. Felling, burn- 

 ing and clearing of jungles, as wtW as cultivating; are 

 now done in a thoroughgoing way with the aid of mod- 

 ern machinery, chiefly from the United States. Planting 

 and tapping are being done in a systematic, scientific 

 way, conservation -being stressed quite as much as utmost 

 yield. All this with the "skip-a-day" plan of tapping in 

 force as part of the crop-restriction scheme entered upon 

 by the Rubber Growers' Association and other interests, 

 by insuring more rest for the trees, should go far toward 

 l)Utting the great planted areas in a finer condition than 

 ihev have ever been. 



THE RUBBER ASSOCIATION'S NEW PRESIDENT 



A(;\iN has The Rubber Association shown wisdom in 

 the selection of chief executive. Harry T, Dunn, a 

 live wire in rublier and motor manufacture, is one who 

 will add strength to the organization and guide it to even 

 greater influence and usefulness. His record with The 

 Fisk Rubber Co. and the War Indu.stries Board and his 

 helpfulness on important association committees all are 

 universally known and are pleasantly prophetic. We con- 

 gratulate The Rubber Association, and the rubber trade 

 at large. 



