THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October i, 1903. 



of rubber by planting trees was impracticable. On the 

 other hand, when some success began to be achieved, 

 the fact was too often taken for granted as a verifica- 

 tion of the original estimates of yield and profits, in 

 spite of some of these having been disavowed by their 

 authors. The practicability of rubber culture having 

 been established, non resident investors have been in- 

 duced to take an interest in plantations, sometimes by 

 too liberal promises of returns, and Mr. Cook's warning is 

 that success and large profits are not assumed without the 

 caution and discrimination required for other branches of 

 agriculture and other lines of investment. 



To take up the more scientific features of this report, it 

 is pointed that the essential requirements of Castilloa— the 

 rubber tree specifically dealt with— yet require to be more 

 fully known. Mr. Cook inclines to the view that it is not 

 essentially a forest tree, but even if it were, it does not fol- 

 low that it should be planted under the same conditions as in 

 the wild state. Our cultivated plants generally have much 

 better conditions than their wild relatives. Planting Cas- 

 tilloa in the undisturbed forests he regards as clearly inad- 

 visable ; but as to the proper degree of shade or its ab- 

 sence, " each planter will need to use his best judgment in 

 determining what local conditions require — - No gen- 

 eral principles will determine what is best, because no one 

 method is applicable everywhere." 



It has been found possible with many plants to increase 

 the average percentage of starch, sugar, or oil through the 

 planting of selected seed or cuttings, and Mr. Cook sug- 

 gests the probability that a like result is possible in the 

 case of rubber. There is, in the natural state, no uniform- 

 ity in the yield of the rubber tree of any given species, nor 

 is such uniformity to be looked for in planted rubber. 

 There are conditions under which rubber trees may not 

 yield any latex, whether wild or cultivated. These and 

 other considerations suggest the importance of great 

 care in planning a plantation of rubber, which at best re- 

 quires years to become productive. Moreover, there is 

 more than one species of Castilloa, and all are not of equal 

 value as rubber producers. 



Clearly there is a wide field for scientific investigation, 

 to demonstrate not only the proper location and other 

 conditions for planting rubber trees, but also the best 

 method of extraction of latex and preparation of the com- 

 mercial product. Then the rubber planter may order his 

 work with the same confidence of results that the farmer 

 now feels in the case of the crops that long have been 

 staple. But we venture to say that long before this state 

 of things arrives, very much rubber will have been obtained 

 from plantations. We might suggest that many of these 

 problems relate equally to the extraction of' rubber in 

 the forests, the total of which has now become enor- 

 mous, without any assistance thus far from science. This 

 is not by way of disparagement of such work as Mr. Cook 

 is doing, however, which we welcome as promising results 

 of great importance to the rubber planting interest. 



The rubber planting world, indeed, is to be congratulated 

 upon a manifestation of interest in this subject by an in- 

 stitution of the standing of our agricultural department. 



FOREIGN ENTERPRISE IN BRAZIL. 



' I 'HE alien who, in seeking to supply the demand in his 

 A own country for what is called " Para rubber," settles 

 on the Amazon river to-day, places himself almost beyond 

 the pale of civilization. If he acquires a so called rubber 

 "concession" and the natives steal all his rubber, render- 

 ing his investment fruitless, the laws of the Amazon states 

 leave him without redress. In case of any legal dispute, 

 such as may arise under the laws of any civilized country, 

 the outsider, under the legal codes in force on the Amazon, 

 may as well consider himself non suited in advance. 



Now it is not intimated here that the common law of 

 England — the basis of the jurisprudence of largely by far 

 the greater part of the rubber consuming world of to day 

 — should be recognized on the Amazon. But the states in 

 that region must recognize the potency of some European 

 code of law antedating their existence as states, guarantee- 

 ing the rights of individuals and the sanctity of contracts. 

 If they do not, the necessity remains for nations based 

 upon principles of modern civilization to regard the com- 

 munities on the Amazon as not yet having attained to an 

 equal status with them. 



Within a few decades past, capital from other than Bra- 

 zilian sources has been invested — and on a large scale — 

 in rubber estates under Brazilian control. The failure to 

 realize a large production of rubber must be ascribed 

 either (1) to deception on the part of the Brazilian ven- 

 dors ; (2) to the robbery of the purchased estates, without 

 protection from Brazilian laws ; or (3) to a lack of business 

 acumen on the part of the foreign investors. It happens, 

 by the way, that, regardless of the small shipments by the 

 foreign investors, the total exports from the districts re- 

 ferred to have amounted to the normal figure ; besides, it 

 would be somewhat singular if Anglo-American invest- 

 ments should prove unsuccessful only on the Amazon and 

 its tributaries. 



What should be regarded as a higher aim for statesman- 

 ship in Grao Pari and Amazonas than the utmost devel- 

 opment of the trade in rubber in those regions ? How 

 many holders of the suffrage in the two states named are 

 prepared to contribute capital for the exploitation of rub- 

 ber therein ? What does the Brazilian, properly so called, 

 to develop what is thus far the most important eco- 

 nomic interest along the Amazon ? Nothing. Hence the 

 desirability of encouraging the investment of capital there 

 by outsiders. So long as North America and Europe are 

 prepared to pay liberally for the chief product of the Ama- 

 zon states it is most unreasonable that their citizens should 

 continue to be treated as brigands while attempting to 

 do business on that river. 



The most palpably dishonest advertising we remem- 

 ber to have seen has been carried on for several months 

 past, on a vast scale, purporting to solicit subscriptions to the 

 capital stock of a company formed to trade in rubber in Vene- 

 zuela. We have assumed that not all of the persons advertised 

 as officials of this company have been aware of how the public 

 was being deceived in their name, and now that the advertising 

 has ceased, we may say that in exposing the swindle this Journal 



