524 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August 1, 1912 



and only the larger trees eight or ten years old, can be depended 

 upon to furnish rubber of good quality. It was anticipated that 

 rubber material could have been extracted from one-year-old 

 trees, but this has proved illusory, for although chemically, the 

 rubber is there, yet it is not in such a condition as to make it 

 of marl<et value, and up to the present no chemical process has 

 been devised which will change the soft and sticky material ob- 

 tained from young trees into the hard and clastic product af- 

 forded by mature trees. 



"Experiments with rubber fluids, or Later, sliow that Castilloa 

 rubber taken from trees at Ay2 years is inelastic, somewhat 

 brittle and of quite inferior quality, while rubber fluids taken 

 from trees 10 to IS years gave rubber of excellent quality. 



"Side by side with these experiments have been conducted 

 tests of the rubber fluids of Funtumia ehslica, from trees 4yi 

 years planted, and these are found to produce rubber of excel- 

 lent quality at their age, and, moreover, the material is at once 

 easily coagulated by heat as taken from the tree, and the fluids 

 are found to contain considerably over 50 per cent, by weight 

 of solid rubber. 



"Unless some chemical process can be devised to alter the 

 resinous and sticky character of the rubber obtained from young 



^VlLsIu.si.Jv ScHOLARIS, TkI-MI'AU 



(j.'.KDENS. 



Castilloa trees, it is utterly useless to plant them with a view of 

 obtaining annual crops." 



In this connection Professor Carmody's table of the resin 

 contents of Castilloa rubber in Trinidad is very apropos : 

 Age Per Cent. 



Years. 

 3 . 

 7 to 8 



do .. 



do .. 



do .. 



do .. 



15 .. 



do .. 



Resin. 

 53.99 

 28.60 

 26.93 

 27.09 

 27.31 

 15.29 

 13.42 

 11.37 



An interesting experiment was tried by Mr. Frank Evans in 

 the Trinidad Experimental Station, in which the trees were 

 tapped by means of a great many small punctures spread over 

 the whole surface to a height of 8 to 10 feet. This system prom- 

 ised excellent results, as the first tests gave a yield of from 



^ to 2^ pounds of dry ruliber per tree at a single tapping ; but 

 it was found that the wounds made by these pricking instruments 

 had usnally a rougli edge and healed badly. Another objection 



P.\l.m-Sh.\ueij -Vvenue, Trimd.^d. 



to this method lay in the quantity of labor required; and a sug- 

 gestion is made tliat this diffieulty could be overcome by the use 

 of a small light portable engine, worked by compressed air, and 

 connected by rubber tubing with the tapping tool. Of course, 

 such an engine would liave to be very light to be carried about 

 by one man, and then, the cost would be considerable, though 

 many experts believe that the tapping of the future will be done 

 by steam or electrical mechanism. 



That rubber is really being officially recognized as a product 

 of Trinidad is beginning to be shown by the official lists. They 

 consisted formerly of cacao, cane, cotton, etc., but the follow- 

 ing are listed for 1912: 



Rubber Est.'\tes in Trixid.\d. 



Plantation. Owners. 



Botanic Station Trinidad Government 



Rio Claro Poole Syndicate 



Sta. Onita F. Boos 



Stearrbonum Carr Bros. 



Nonpareil E. A. Robinson 



St. Marie W. Greig 



Verdant Vale Trinidad Cacao & Coffee Co. 



Narva G. de Games 



Oropuna Department of .-Xgriculture 



Monte Cristo H. Monceaux 



Heve.\ Xlrserv, Bot.\n:cal Gardens, Trinidad. 



