388 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Aucust i, 1904. 



RUBBER PLANTING INTERESTS. 



SULO-SUCHIL PLANTATION CO. 



[Plantations at Sulo-Suchil, canton of Manatitlan, state of Vera Cruz, Mexico. 

 Office: 835 The Spitzer, Toledo, Ohio.] 



THE annual inspection was made by John A. Giedeman, 

 of Toledo, Ohio, inspector for the shareholders, whose 

 report, dated March 25, gave the statistics of planting on 

 the company's three plantations already printed in The India 

 Rubber World of December 1, 1903 [page 85]. The report 

 gave a good account generally of the condition of the growing 

 crops and details of improvements made on the estate. Re- 

 garding rubber he wrote : " The best rubber I saw was growing 

 on land where the forest growth had been removed, on which 

 the trees approximated 30 feet in heighth with a diameter of 10 

 to 12 inches, planted in rows 9X9. There is probably 100,000 of 

 such trees. I slashed many of them and they bled freely. I 

 cannot say that rubber growing under shade with coffee im- 

 pressed me so well as to size, age considered. Even so, I re- 

 gard this class of rubber as an asset of great value, and am sat- 

 isfied it will mature under slight comparative delay, and that 

 the company can rely on same in due time as a source of splen- 

 did revenue." The company have since issued a book of half 

 tone views, from excellent photographs, to illustrate the appear- 

 ance of different features of their property, and as a supplement 

 to Mr. Giedeman's report. 



RUBBER TREE PLANTING AT PARA. 

 The United States consul at Paid, Brazil, Mr. Louis H. 

 Ayme\ reports having visited a small plantation of Hevea Bra- 

 siliensis in a suburb of that city, formed and owned by a 

 wealthy gentleman named Martins. Several hundred of the 

 planted trees are now considered ready for yielding latex, and 

 the consul saw several trees tapped, the method of extraction, 

 smoking, etc., being the same as practiced in the forest esiradas. 

 There are thousands of other rubber plants on the same prop- 

 erty, ranging in age down to two years, and the owner thinks 

 that they will form a valuable legacy to his family. The age 

 of the productive trees is not given, but the report implies that 

 10 to 14 years is the age to begin tapping. Nor is the rate of 

 yield given. The site of the plantation is " rather high, sandy 

 ground, sloping gently to the northeast to low ground, where 

 a fine spring broke from the earth." 



PROFITS OF THE SOCIETE A B I R . 

 The Societe A B I R (Anglo-Belgian India-Rubber and Ex- 

 ploration Co.), an important<r0H<rif.s.m>ttrt*>v company in the Congo 

 rubber trade, was mentioned in the last India Rubber World 

 as intending the distribution on July 1 of a dividend of 500 

 francs per share. It now appears that this was in addition to a 

 dividend of 700 francs per share already paid out of the profits 

 of 1903, or a total of 1200 francs per share, on 2000 shares. The 

 net profits were about 2,890,000 francs [=$557,770], on a capital 

 of 1,000,000 francs. The company sold during the year 700 tons 

 of Caoutchouc, and at the close of the year had on hand 348,950 

 kilograms of Caoutchouc and 5990 of ivory. It is reported that 

 the Societe A B I R will subscribe two-thirds of the proposed 

 capital of 600,000 florins [=$241,200] of a Netherlands company 

 formed to establish a plantation of rubber in the Straits Settle- 

 ments, for which purpose an amount equal to 180,000 florins 

 has been held in reserve from the profits of A B I R for the past 

 business year. It was rumored, recently, that the Congo Free 

 State, after taking over the exploitation of the concession of 

 the Societe Anversoise pour le Commerce au Congo, intended 

 to also take in hand that of the A B I R, but, as yet, this rumor 

 has not been confirmed. Nevertheless, all this points to the in- 



tention of the Congo state to control more fully the affairs of 

 the concessionaire companies. 



RUBBER IN ONE MALAY STATE. 

 The annual report of the British official resident in Negri 

 Sembilan, one of the Federated Malay States, for the year 1903, 

 notes an increased interest there in the cultivation of Para 

 rubber. Exports of cultivated rubber for the year amounted to 

 14 61 piculs [ = 1948 pounds], against only 1 picul [ = 133^3 

 pounds] in 1902. The value stated for the 1903 exports is 

 $3714, silver, which, at recent exchange rates, would be equal 

 to about $1736, or 88^ cents per pound. A considerably 

 larger output is expected for 1904. During the past year about 

 20,000 acres of government lands were applied for, to be 

 planted to rubber. = = Last year the Tropica! Agriculturist 

 estimated the acreage of planted rubber in Negri Sembilan at 

 1500, and for the whole of the Straits Settlements at 16.600.== 

 During the year the Seremban Estate Rubber Co., Limited, 

 was formed, to acquire certain rubber planting properties at a 

 cost of £31,666 [ = $154,103], for one half of which the vendors 

 accepted shares in the new company. 



NEW RUBBER PLANTING COMPANIES. 



The Amapa Rubber Plantation Co. was incorporated May 

 11, 1904, under Maine laws, with $2,000,000 capital authorized, 

 to be in a position to engage in rubber culture in Mexico, un- 

 der certain circumstances. The directors are : I. L.Fairbanks 

 (president and treasurer), L. A. Burleigh, and J. Berry, Augus- 

 ta, Maine ; Rufus T. Goodell and Dean L. Robinson, New 

 York. 



= Federal Plantation Co., incorporated September 9, 1903, 

 under Maine laws ; authorized capital, $2,000,000. Directors: 

 William Vernon Backus (president), William Backus, Sr., A. E. 

 Hyre, Irma Harms, F. H. Coleman — all of Cleveland, Ohio. 

 Organized to develop a rubber plantation adjoining those of 

 the Mexican Investment and Manufacturing Co. and The Im- 

 perial Plantation Co., both of Cleveland, both mentioned more 

 fully hitherto in The India Rubber World, and all owned 

 by the same interests. 



= Boston Rubber Plantation Co., incorporated July 8, 1904, 

 under Maine laws; capital, $300,000. Incorporators: Horace 

 Mitchell (president and clerk), Kittery, Maine; A. M. Meloon 

 (treasurer), Newcastle, New Hampshire; M. G. Mitchell, Kit- 

 tery ; Horace E. Bragdon, East Boston, Massachusetts; El- 

 bert K. Sherman, Newtonville, Mass. ; Thomas M. Durell, Som- 

 erville, Mass. 



= EI Guapotal Rubber Plantation Co., incorporated June 29, 

 1904, under Wisconsin laws. Incorporators: Henry P. Hohel, 

 Henry C. Schaper and Henry Hannan ; office at Madison, Wis- 

 consin. 



RUBBER PLANTING COMPANY PUBLICATIONS. 



The Tehuantepec Rubber Culture Co., New York= Plantation Rubio 

 Illustrated. [A series of photographic views, to accompany the report 

 by Grosvenor Calkins, official inspector, reviewed in The India Rubber 

 World, May 1, 1904 — page 271]. 4.4 pages. 



The Consolidated Ubero Plantations Co., Boston .= The Tropical 

 News, June, 1904. [Containing Report of the Inspector, Dr. Charles 

 T. Baylis, of Brooklyn, New York ] 16 pages. 



ColUeo Sugar Plantation Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. =Coliseo Jour- 

 nal, No. 1 — June, 1004. 



Batavia Co , Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin =(a) Annual Report No. 

 I. Batavia Plantation. By Ben L. Edgarton, Inspector. 31 pages. 

 (/•) Annual Bulletin, No. 1 — July I, 1904, 12 pages. 



Mexican Rubber Co. of Providence (Rhode Island). = (<;) Life as it is 

 in Old Mexico. Facts Regarding Cultivated Rubber. 64 pages, (b) 

 Report of William B. Wofford, Tropical Agriculturist. 5 leaves. 



