May 



1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



261 



THE BASIS OF HOPE IN RUBBER PLANTING. 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



No. 150 NASSAU ST.. NEW YOEK. 



Subscriptions : $3.00 per year, $1.75 for six months, postpaid, for the United 

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 Clubs of five, ten or more subscribers. 



Advertising: Rates will be made known on application. 



Remittances: Should always be made by bank draft. Post Office Orders or 

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 Publishing Company. Remittances for foreign subscriptions should 

 be sent by International Post order, payable as above. 



Discontinuances : Yearly orders for subscriptions and advertising are 

 regarded as permanent, and after the first twelve months they will 

 be discontinued only at the request of the subscriber or advertiser. 

 Bills are rendered promptly at the beginning of each period, and 

 thereby our patrons have due notice of continuance. 



COPYRIGHT, 1904. BY 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



Entered at New York Post Office as mail matter of the second-class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial: 



The Basis of Hope In Rubber Planting. 

 On Looking for New Rubbers 



Meeting of the Mechanical Goods Trade 



[With Portrait til Amadee Spadopc.] 



Annual Meeting of the New England Rubber Club 



Rubber Planting in Ceylon a nd the Malay States— II ...The Editor 



[Growth of Hevea Trees at Heneratgoda. Their Yield at Various 



Ages. Visit to Paradeniya. Director Willis and his Work. Canker 



Fungus in Htvea and its Treatment by Mr. Carruthers. Railways 



in Ceylon. Leeches and Other Insect Pests.] 



[With 14 Illustrations.] 



Various Rubber Planting Companies 



[Report on Plantation " Rubio." Mr. Vernon B„ckus on Mexican 

 Planting. New Companies in Mexico, Ceylon, and the Malay 

 Stales] 



The Manufacture of Shoe Lasts 



[With 3 Illustrations ] 



Production Cost of Insulating Tape An Expert 



Rubber Factory Appliances 



[Mew Spreader and Doubter Ten Roll Calender. Covering Flexible 

 Conduits with Rubber.] 



[With 3 Illustrations.] 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain 



Uur Regular Correspondent 



[Imports of Rubber Goods. Trade of the United States Rubbn Co, 

 Society of Chemical Industry. The Marconi Company. The Dental 

 Rubber Business. New Tire Fabric. Notes.] 



The Revolving Heel in England 



[With 6 Illustrations.] 



New Goods and Specialties in Rubber ... 



[Snyder Health Vibrator. New Double Tube Bicycle Tire. Ladies' 

 Rubber Automobile Veil. Dr. Crile's Pneumatic Pressure Suit. 

 Three "Glove Company" Novelties. Darlington Dishwasher. 

 " Summit Invigorator."l 



[With 10 Illustrations ] 



Recent Rubber Patents 



[United States. Great Britain. Germany. France.] 



Rubber Goods Manufacturing Co 



[Report at Fifth Annual Meeting.] 

 Miscellaneous : 



Literature of IndlP. Rubber 



New Trade Publications. 



A New Village Hose Cart (Illustrated) 



The Industry in Austria-Hungary 



The Obituary Record 



Rubber Under the Russian Tariff 



The Textile Goods Markel 



News of the American Rubber Trade 



[With 2 Illustrations.] 



The Trade at Akron . . Our Correspondent 



The Trade at Trenton Our Correspondent 



Review of the Crude Rubber Market 



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278 

 279 



281 

 283 



264 

 275 

 277 

 278 

 278 

 284 



285 



2?9 



289 



291 



A QUESTION asked by many persons, when the sub- 

 *"• ject of rubber planting is first brought to their atten- 

 tion, is whether any rubber plantations have yet been de- 

 veloped profitably. If told that no large rubber planta- 

 tions on a commercial basis have yet been in existence 

 long enough for the trees to have become mature, this 

 statement seems to afford to some minds an ample excuse 

 for distrust of the whole business. If no large plantation 

 of rubber is yet old enough to yield liberally, how does any- 

 one know that rubber can be produced under cultivation ? 

 The question deserves consideration, and it may be worth 

 while to point out some of the reasons which have encour- 

 aged the investment of a large amount of capital in rubber 

 planting. 



If an illustration from an outside field may be permitted, 

 we may mention that the offices of this Journal overlook 

 the first of the great suspension bridges erected over the 

 East river, in New York city, long known as the " Brook- 

 lyn bridge." When this structure was first planned, back 

 in 1867, no suspension bridge on such a stupendous scale 

 had ever been built. None had even been planned. It 

 was a great risk to put up in the air a span a third of a 

 mile in length, weighing of itself thousands of tons, and 

 intended to support a vast and incessant traffic. Many 

 people said it couldn't be done ; they kept on saying it for 

 sixteen years. So long as the bridge was building people 

 were writing to the newspapers that such a bridge was im- 

 possible — because nothing of the kind had been done be- 

 fore. At last the bridge was completed, and for twenty 

 years it has been a constant thoroughfare for more traffic 

 than anybody ever dreamed would exist. 



But the bridge was no mere experiment. The engineers 

 who drew the plans and calculated the quantity of materi- 

 als needed to give certain results simply applied known 

 and tested principles of construction ; the new bridge was 

 merely bigger than any that had been built before. Now 

 a second bridge, of still longer span, stretches over the 

 East river, and it causes no wonder. 



The application of this to the rubber planting proposi- 

 tion may not be so remote as might at first seem. It has 

 been abundantly proved that a rubber tree seed plant- 

 ed carefully by hand will grow into a tree not differing 

 from the product of a seed dropped by nature and finding 

 a chance place to germinate. It has been proved that the 

 rubber product of such planted trees differs in noway from 

 that of a rubber tree in the forest. ' Small plantations of 

 rubber, of various species, in different countries, have pro- 

 duced- rubber under conditions which point to a lower cost 

 of production than in the richest forest areas exploited for 

 this material along the Amazon, or anywhere else. Further- 

 more, the product of such cultivated trees, being cleaner 

 and otherwise better prepared, has brought better prices 

 in the markets. 



It should not seem an unreasonable proposition, there- 

 fore, that if a few planted rubber trees grow well, a large 

 number should grow equally well under like circum 

 stances, or that if hundreds of trees on a given estate 



