THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October 1, 1911. 



ceedingly cheerful prediction regarding the production 

 of rubber in the Malay Peninsula. "In 1916 the out- 

 put for Malaya should be at least 65,000 tons on the 

 present acreage alone — provided nothing unforeseen 

 arises to cause the abandonment of already planted 

 land." 



The Malayan product for 1910 was 12,563,220 

 pounds. If, according to the director's prediction, this 

 product in 1916 equals 130,000,000 pounds, the increase 

 for these five years will be approximately 117,500,000 

 pounds. The acreage planted to rubber in the Malay 

 peninsula at the end of 1910 was 362,853 acres, or 

 about one-third of the planted area of the world. 

 Suppose the territory outside Malaya does as well as 

 the Malay district, the total increase of plantation 

 rubber in 1916 would be in the neighborhood of 352,- 

 500,000 pounds, which is over twice the world's pres- 

 ent supply. In other words, assuming that the output 

 of wild rubber remains stationary, the total rubber 

 production in five years will be over three times the 

 present supply. 



That is such a stupendous increase that one cannot 

 help feeling that the figures may have some flaw, but 

 further conputation proves them thoroughly sane. 

 Allowing 100 trees to the acre, there were at the end 

 of 1910 in the Malay peninsula 36,285,300 trees. In 

 1916 these trees will range from six to fifteen years 

 of age, and a production of 130,000,000 pounds is only 

 3% pounds per tree, which certainly is conservative. 



The situation is fairly clear, therefore. If the wild 

 supply suffers no diminution and if, to quote Dr. 

 Ridley again, "nothing unforeseen arises to cause the 

 abandonment of the already planted land," 1916 should 

 see the rubber industry safely past any possible famine 

 stage. But, of course, considerable weight will have 

 to be attached to jjoth those "ifs," especially the last. 



THE WASHING OF WILD RUBBER. 



T"" HE average man, of middle life, experienced in the 

 unfulfilled promises of many business ventures, with 

 past disappointments and losses in mind, is usually 

 antagonistic to new ventures. The record of the past 

 is his guide. The thought that the future has new 

 methods, revolutionary changes and uncharted by-paths 

 is repugnant. Hence he condemns the new, unless it 

 keeps step with his own practice. That is why but a 

 short six years ago the head of a great rubber corpora- 

 tion gravely informed a listening audience that rubber 



planting in the Middle East was only an experiment car- 

 ried on by the British Government and that it could by 

 no possibility amount to anything. He believed what 

 he said, not only because his experience taught him that 

 such ventures were risky, but because of his unconscious 

 repugnance to a change of conditions. 



Rubber plainting wins out however and the repug- 

 nance vanishes. Moreover, the former mental attitude 

 toward it is forgotten. Now, there is no harm in the 

 attitude, for that is a part of conservatism. The harm is 

 in the forgetting, for the same type of mistakes will be 

 certain when the next problem arises. 



All of this leads up to the consideration of something 

 new in rubber, and something that is being very gener- 

 ally condemned. That is the washing of crude rubber 

 in the countries where it is gathered. Of the many ar- 

 guments adduced against it two are worth considering. 

 The first is the statement that rubber manufacturers al- 

 ready equipped with washing apparatus prefer to do 

 their own cleansing, because they know exactly what 

 they get when the native gathered gum arrives. The 

 only trouble with that statement is that it is not a iact. 

 Their shrinkages, claims and damaged goods testify to 

 the contrary. The second objection is that washed rub- 

 ber will be classed as a manufactured product and sub- 

 jected to import duties. So far there is no evidence of 

 any attempt at such a ruling. Crude rubber deprived of 

 its moisture is still crude rubber. It is unmanufactured 

 until it is worked up into rubber goods. Washed or 

 unwashed, it must go to the rubber mills for compound- 

 ing, cutting, making up, finishing and packing before it 

 is ready for the market. The intent of the law is very 

 clear and there is little likelihood that cleaner or dryer 

 crude rubber will ever be assessed as a manufacturtil 

 product. 



On the other hand, the rubber manufacturers have 

 found no difficulty in using the clean, dry plantation 

 sheet or block. There has arisen no case of adulteration 

 on the part of the producer and it comes in free of duty. 

 Moreover, its appearance upon the market in quantity 

 has opened the eyes of the wild rubber gatherers to the 

 importance of a clean product. The day will come when 

 from Brazil, from the Congo, from the Gold Coast will 

 come clean, nearly dry rubber, because it will be more 

 merchantable and more profitable. The standardization 

 of crude rubber should begin at its sources. To further 

 this work, it is only necessary for the State of Para, for 

 example, to put a small additional tax upon dirty rubber 

 and it will soon all be clean. Then, if they put an added 



