July i, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



329 



A CONSUL ON RUBBER PLANTING. 



Pablished on the 1st of each Month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



No. 150 NASSAU ST.. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 



EDITOR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 



ASSOCIATE. 



Vol. 30. 



JULY 1, 1904. 



No. 4 



Subscriptions : $3.00 per year, $1 .75 for six mouths, postpaid, for the United 

 States and Canada. Foreign countries, same price. Special Kates for 

 Clubs of live, ten or more subscribers. 



Advertising: Kates will be made known on application. 



Remittances: Should always be made by bank draft, Post Office Order- or 

 Express Money orders on New York, payable to The India Rubber 

 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, B Y 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



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



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial: 



A Consul on Rubber Planting.... 32t) 



Minor Editorial 330 



Career of the Late Elisha S. Converse 333 



[With Portrait. 1 

 Hubber Planting in Ceylon and the Malay States— IV . . . . The Editor 335 

 [Rubber Trees and Tapping at Culloden. Night Tapping. Rubber 

 Curing House. Oil from 7/gz'fa Nuts. Cost of Rubber at Colombo. 

 Arapolakanda and Sunnycroft Estates. Smoking Ce>lon Rubber. 

 Enemies of the Htvea.] 



Scientific Vuloanization Methods— II Charles J Tagliabue 340 



[With Diagram of the Tagliabue System.] 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain 



OurRigular Corrrspondiiit 342 



[High Price of Rubber. Rubber Heels. Ceara Rubber. Ceylon 

 Rubber. Batata Industry. Rubber Pavements. Rubber Sponge. 

 Side Slip Trial. Electric Railway Dangers. Trade Jottings. Pei- 

 sonal Mention.] 



The Rubber Planting Companies 344 



[Progress Notes from Mexico and Ceylon.] 



Making Guttapercha from Leaves 345 



Production Cost of Insulating Tape C. E. Warrington 345 



Recent Rubber Patents 346 



[American. British. German. French.] 



New Goods and Specialties in Rubber 349 



[Rubber Cushion for Cornet Mouthpiece. De Vilbiss Universal Atom- 

 izer. Steele's Patent Rubber Faucet Guard. " Perfection " Safety 

 Vapor and Shower Bath. The "Wurkeze" Bilge Pump. Allen 

 Fountain Bath Brush. Ayvad's " Water Wingfc."] 

 [With t4 Illustrations.] 



Buffing Machines for Rubber Work 351 



[With 3 Illustrations.] 



Rubber Cultural Prospects in Mexico .George Culhn Pearson 352 



Miscellaneous : 



An Ocean Cable " Made in Germany " 3S0 



Reduced Tax on Acre Rubber 331 



Profits in Congo Rubber 331 



India-Rubber Goods in Commerce 331 



Gutta-Perclia Rod Free of Duty 331 



The Austrian Rubber Trust 332 



New Trade Publications. 332 



Ruober Exports from Peru ' 332 



New Drier for Fire Hose (Illustrated) 341 



Apparatus for Lasting Shoe Uppers (Illustrated) ... 350 



A Report on Gutta-Percha Values 353 



The Price and Quilltyof Rubber 354 



The " New Method" of Wringer Rolls 354 



Woman's Rainy-Day Apparel 355 



News of the American Rubber Trade- 356 



Review of the Crude Rubber Market 360 



A REPORT entitled " Rubber Culture in Mexico," 

 **■ signed by Edward M. Conley, " vice and deputy 

 consul general" at Mexico City, and published by the 

 government at Washington under date of June 14, 1904, 

 will doubtless have a good effect in strengthening the de- 

 mand for a higher standard of efficiency in the consular 

 service. The first effect, however, will be to discredit, in 

 the minds of uninformed readers, the work of many honest 

 citizens of the United States, who have invested much 

 money in Mexico, in a branch of planting enterprise for 

 which there is a pressing demand, and which promises 

 profitable returns so long as the world needs rubber. 



Mr. Conley's excuse for his report is the large number 

 of letters of inquiry received at his consulate " on the sub- 

 ject of rubber culture in Mexico." Such letters deserve 

 to be answered, and, in view of the importance of the sub- 

 ject to American citizens, the government should be rep- 

 resented in Mexico by a consul informed by personal ob- 

 servation in regard to what is being attempted in the way 

 of rubber planting there, and the results to date. Instead 

 of which we have here about 2000 words of opinions by a 

 consul who lacks the courage to write : " I know nothing 

 of the subject." 



To illustrate the character of the Conley report, a few 

 paragraphs may be introduced here, with the remark that, 

 while they may have been written in all sincerity by the 

 consul, this fact does not justify the distribution of the re- 

 port by the government without giving it any editorial su- 

 pervision. Here is a specimen opinion : 



Theoretically, rubber culture is a very alluring proposition, but thus 

 far it has never yielded any practical results. It was experimented with 

 for years in other countries before its cultivation was undertaken in 

 Mexico, and, according to a recent report of the United States depart- 

 ment of agriculture, the experiments have always been failures. [The 

 title of this report, and the chapter and page, are not given. — The Edi- 

 tor ] There is as yet no good reason to believe that its cultivation in 

 Mexico will prove any more successful than it has in other countries. 



If rubber cultivation in Mexico proves one half as suc- 

 cessful as on the older plantations in the Far East visited 

 recently by the Editor of The India Rubber World, the 

 planters there will have no reason to feel disappointed. 

 Moreover, there are plantations in Mexico as well advanced 

 now as were any in Ceylon at the same age. Again, the 

 consul writes : 



The cultivation of rubber is based upon the supposition that the sup- 

 ply of wild rubber will one day be exhausted or greatly curtailed, but 

 this hypothesis is entirely uncertain. The regions from which the sup- 

 ply now comes are still largely unexplored, geographically and botani- 

 cally, and the discovery of new areas of rubber bearing vegetation and 

 of new rubber producing species is not infrequent and may continue for 

 many years. Moreover, the progress of science may enable the extrac- 

 tion of rubber from juices not now utilized, and the discovery of such a 

 process might change the entire aspect of the rubber industry. There 

 is always the possibility, also, of the discovery of a substitute for rubber, 

 such as its synthetical manufacture from turpentine, which has been ex- 

 perimented with. Thus a slight increase in chemical knowledge might 

 at any time change the whole situation. 



It is not safe to be too positive about what will not hap- 

 pen in future. When the north pole is discovered it may 

 prove to be the gateway to millions of tons of fine Para 



