208 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



[Februarv, 1, 1912. 



sioii is the best i)ossil)!c solntimi, nia\ l)c a proper subject 

 for argument, but it certainly is worthy of the serious 

 atlciUion of everv member of the business comnuuiitv. 



RUBBER AND THE ABANDONED FARM. 



PROSPECTS OF RUBBER PRODUCTION AND 

 CONSUMPTION. 



I i\' the various advance estimates which have been re- 

 ■*■ centl\- made of prospective conditions in l')l()-l')17 

 (when the rubber area now phuitcd will be productive), 

 prominence has been given in (iermany to the prediction 

 that the output of plantation rubber will liy that time 

 have reached 110,000 tons. To this amount should, of 

 course, be added tiie quantity represented by wild rub- 

 l)cr (at present about 65,000 tons) which would give a 

 total of al)out 175,000 tons, or over twice the present 

 ]iroduction. 



Consumption, based on a (ierman estimate of a yearly 

 increase of 10 ]ier cent., will b\ l''l() have only reached 

 about 110,000 tons so that there would apparently be at 

 that time a surplus of 65,000 tons to be taken care of. 

 It is, however, assumed that a consequent fall in value 

 would lead to a considerable increase of demand, and 

 that rubber would be used for purposes from which its 

 price and fluctuations have hitherto excluded it. 



INCREASED MALAYA RUBBER EXPORTS A 

 REALITY. 



'"T'llAT the increase in Malayan rubber exi)orts is 

 ■*• proceeding with "leaps and bounds" is further 

 illustrated by the official report of the Imperial Ger- 

 man Consul at Singapore, dealing with the first si.x 

 months of the year just past. 



During thai i^eriod the total Malayan shipments had 

 amounted to 8,349,397 pounds, as compared with 5,276,- 

 791 pounds during the first half of 1910. That the in- 

 crease during the stibsequent period has been to even 

 a larger proportionate extent, is ])roved l)y the figures 

 recorded in another column of this issue, according to 

 which the quantitx- for eleven months of I'Hl exceeded 

 19 million pounds. 



In the al)ove-named consular report, allusion is made 

 to the opinion widely entertained in .Singapore, that 

 the rubber production in this and in the following years 

 will not be as large as generally anticipated, man}- 

 companies having failed to reach the yields estimated 

 by their reports. From the figures of 1911 it would, 

 however, seem that the increase of oiitjiut is at present 

 making steady progress. 



\Y/'"''^ Charles Goodyear gesticulated that fist-full 

 '" of rubber and sulphur against the hot kitchen 

 stove some seventy-odd years ago, he never dreaniei! 

 (and he was an irrepressible dreamer) of the thousand 

 ways in which the beneficial influences of that act would 

 ramify. If, for instance, he had been told that fifty years 

 after that time many of the New England farms would 

 be abandoned because of the inability of their owners to 

 eke out a decent living from them, and that a few years 

 later, because of his rubber, sulphur and hot stove, many 

 of these deserted farms would be restored and retenanted, 

 he probably would have believed it, as he had an abiding 

 faith in the vast possibilities of his discovery, but it would 

 have been absolutely impossible for him to explain how it 

 was going to happen. 



But precisely this very thing has happened. From 

 fifteen to twenty-five years ago a great many of the old 

 farms scattereil throughout Xew England and the Middle 

 .States were totally and hopelessly abandoned. The older 

 generation born and reared on these farms had passed 

 away and their descendants found it either impossible to 

 extract a reasonable living from the soil, or else dis- 

 covered that they could materially better their financial 

 condition by migrating to the town or city and working 

 in the shop, store or office. As a result, the old home- 

 steads, untenanted antl unkempt, fell into dreary decay, 

 the generous barns gradually sagged and collapsed and 

 the once cheerful homes gave shelter only to an occa- 

 sional tramp. 



The new farming of the great West, with its broad, 

 level fertile fields, making it possible to engage in agri- 

 cidture on a vast scale, with all the im|)roved machinerx, 

 rendered it impossible for the little farm up on the stony 

 New England hillside to survive. The man from town in 

 his cross-country rides deplored the unhappy estate into 

 which rural life had fallen, and saw many an abandoned 

 spot which attracted him for its summer possibilities, but, 

 being fifteen or twenty miles from town, as far as its 

 jiractical usefulness to him was concerned, it might have 

 been in .\laska. 



Then came the automobile, made possible b\- its rubber 

 tires, and the whole situation was changed. The farm a 

 dozen miles from a railway station or twenty miles away 

 from a thriving town, was no longer out of the world, 

 but could be reached in an hour's time. The stony acres 

 which had proved so poor in potatoes, atid so meagre in 

 apples, were discovered to be exceedingly ricli in pure 



