210 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February, 1, 1912. 



BRAZILIAN CONDITIONS. 



I N view of the relative incompleteness of recent Brazilian ad- 

 *■ vices, special interest attaches to the views expressed by Mr. 

 J. Henry Hirsch, of Adolph Hirsch & Co., New York, and who 

 was a member of the Brazilian Rubber Congress, who has lately 

 arrived from Brazil. 



Three points are specially prominent factors in the Brazilian 

 rubber situation : The conditions affecting cost of producing 

 rubber ; the measures proposed for remedying these conditions, 

 and the course of production itself. 



For the purpose of accurate comparison, both South American 

 and Asiatic rubber need to be brought to a common standard of 

 agricultural, as distinguished from commercial, value. In this 

 way the heavier expense represented by the transport of pro- 

 visions, supplies and products in South America, as compared 

 with Alalaysia, would be clearly shown, thus indicating the points 

 to which official efforts might appropriately be directed, with a 

 view to securing economy in price, without thereby diminishing 

 the share reverting to the original producer. 



Judging from this standpoint, Mr. Hirsch is inclined to con- 

 sider that out of a nominal cost of $1.25 per pound for Para rub- 

 ber, 75 cents would be represented by the carriage on supplies 

 and products, only SO cents being left for the planter. As these 

 expenses in the case of Malaysian producers are upon a much 

 lower scale, they can naturally make a profit, where the South 

 American planter under similar price conditions would make a 

 loss. 



These conditions being thoroughly recognized by the Brazilian 

 Federal and States governments, the question of the remedies 

 to be applied has for some time engaged their attention, with the 

 result that a plan was officially drawn up and ratified by the 

 August congress of various States at Rio de Janeiro (as reported 

 by the India Rubber World in the issue of October, 1911, page 

 7). This plan has since been formally submitted to the Federal 

 Congress, which dissolved at the end of last December. In 

 common, however, with many other government measures, it was 

 deferred, owing to the obstructive tactics of the opposition, and 

 will be dealt with in April next, by the new Congressional body 

 now being elected. As the disturbing factions will, it is expected, 

 be eliminated, and the government will have a clear majority. 

 Mr. Hirsch considers that the early adoption of the proposed 

 reforms is assured. 



As to production generally, his opinion is that any increase of 

 the Asiatic yield will for the coming year be met by a corre- 

 sponding reduction in that from Brazil. He is, moreover, in- 

 clined to think the Asiatic estimates of the more distant future 

 will prove to have been excessive, by reason of reduced plantings 

 and the possible appearance of disease. "What assurance is 

 there," he asks, "that the soil will retain unimpaired in the quan- 

 tity which has been assumed, the constituents necessary for the 

 production of rubber? How are we to be sure some diseases 

 may not in the future cause as much injury to the Asiatic rubber 

 trees as the Phylloxera inflicted upon the French grape vines?" 



Mr. Hirsch does not see that prices are likely to descend below 

 present level, while various causes might lead to an advance. 



The rubber gatherers in the Amazon are chiefly natives of the 

 States of Ceara and Maranhao. Since the fall of prices in the 

 Amazon territory, a number of them have directed their energies 

 to other occupations, while few, if any. new recruits have gone 

 into the rubber districts. The effect of these conditions will be 

 seen in the diminished crops this year from the .Amazon. 



According to Mr. Hirsch's report, his experience of hiring Bar- 

 bados laborers has been unfavorable. In April last he took 59 

 men from that island for his rubber estates in Bahia, but now 

 has not one of them in his employ. The men ran away by de- 

 grees, which result proved to the satisfaction of Mr. Hirsch and 

 his superintendent, who had found they gave a poor return for 

 their wages. 



The steamer I'erdi by which Mr. Hirsch came, brought 1,457 

 bales of Mankoba rubber consigned to Adolph Hirsch & Co., 

 which is understood to have been the largest individual shipment 

 ever received of that quality. 



PLANTATION VERSUS WILD RUBBER. 



IN discussing the question of rubber supplies, the "Gummi-Zeit- 

 ung" remarks that Brazil is no longer the sole rubber-produc- 

 ing country, but that other countries are working under different 

 conditions, so that therefore Brazilian minimum prices do not 

 affect the question. Not only is considerable progress being made 

 in other lands (such as Africa, East India, Central and South 

 America) in the production of natural crude rubber, but the pro- 

 duction of plantation rubber is constantly increasing in India, 

 Malaysia, Africa, South America, etc., and threatens to develop 

 an appreciable competition with wild rubber 



Pure Para rubber, it is added, is today being used on a dimin- 

 ished scale, and the requirements in that grade can in a few years 

 be almost exclusively covered by plantation rubber, so that (ac- 

 cording to German opinion) the prospects of the consumption of 

 Brazilian wild rubber are unfavorably affected by the above facts. 

 Plantation rubber, it is urged, competes with wild rubber, inas- 

 much as it costs less to produce and wild rubber can only retain 

 a competitive position if the cost of its production is reduced. Ef- 

 forts to keep up the price of wild rubber are therefore all the less 

 likely to succeed, while the under-estimation of the future impor- 

 tance of plantation rubber would be a very great mistake. 



There are today over 700,CXX) acres being cultivated with rub- 

 ber, of which 450,000 acres belong to Eastern Asia and its islands. 

 According to a report of Plantation Director Strauss at Molive 

 (Kamerun), there are in England and the English colonies over 

 1.200 companies engaged in rubber planting, with a nominal cap- 

 ital equaling $250,000,000. 



That this competition is growing is illustrated by the fact that 

 the shipments from the Federated Malay States for the first 

 ten months of the last three years were: 1909, 4,831,823 lbs.; 1910, 

 9,824,605 lbs.; 1911, 15,443,154 lbs. 



While Germany has a relatively large capital (equaling $12,- 

 5(X),(XX)) invested in rubber culture, its development is as yet too 

 recent for notable success to have been achieved. Still, satisfac- 

 tion is expressed at the fact that the German colonies already fur- 

 nish an appreciable quantity of crude rubber, not only of medium 

 qualities in wild varieties, but also in plantation rubber of Para 

 grades. During the year 1909 German East Africa alone exported 

 218 tons of plantation rubber and 255 tons of wild rubber. The 

 German colonies in 1910 had the following acreage in rubber 

 German East Africa, about 41,000 acres; Kamerun, about 10,0(X) 

 acres ; New Guinea, about 5,500 acres ; Samoa, about 2,0(X) acres ; 

 Togo, about 375 acres. 



Of this acreage about one-sixth is in bearing. The aggregate 

 exports from the German over-sea territory of india-rubber and 

 gutta-percha amounted to: 1909, 2,150 tons, value $2,875,000; the 

 value for 1910 having been about the equivalent of $3,750,0(X) 



Regret is expressed at the short-sighted policy by which a 

 number of German plantations with good prospects have been 

 sold to English capitalists. What will happen in 1916-17 is thus 

 discussed. "Whether, then, wild, plantation, or artificial rub- 

 ber will play the principal part is only a question of price. The 

 victory will lie with the material which gives the manufacturer 

 the best quality at the lowest price." 



HELLO BRAZILLAJi RUBBER. 



In explanation of the relatively unsatisfactory results of the 

 year ended June 30 last, notwithstanding the collection of 261 

 tons of rubber, the directors of De Mello Brazilian Rubber Com- 

 pany report that it was found necessary to write off as irrecover- 

 able a sum equaling $244,715 from the debts owing to the company. 



