250 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January 1, 1920. 



to the field they were most carefully tctided and guarded against 

 every potential element of danger. Again, unfortunately, details 

 like planting distance, number of trees per acre, etc., are not 

 now available. 



In a letter dated Buenaventura, September 26, 1914, which 

 reached me, after a course of some months, at Loja in Ecuador, 

 Mr. Harvey said : 



Shufeldt, Clarence and I spent some days last week at El Pal- 

 nar. Our 50,000 Para trees are good to look at. Clarence's 

 few trees at San Silverio have cleaned up for the year an aver- 

 age of '.; poiin'd dry rubber per month per tree, which is more 

 than satisfactory. The largest tree at El Palmar, four years 

 from seed, measures 24% inches in circumference 1 foot above 

 ground. I am going to try the tool on it this December or Janu- 

 ary. I expect to be in full swing on a few thousand trees two 

 years from December, as measurements made the other day 

 justify this anticipation. The tree you and I measured at 

 Buenaventura years since — then, I think, it was 13^4, or 1SK> 

 inches— now measures 32 inches in circumference 2 feet above 

 ground. 



About a year before (to be precise, in the month of August, 

 1913), when acting as locum tenens on the American-owned 

 estate of San Silverio, Oaxaca, in the absence of the resident 

 superintendent, C. M. Harvey, it fell to me to supervise the set- 

 ting out of some thousands of Para seedlings from the nursery. 

 There, too, earlier trial growths of Hevca had shown the same 

 encouraging development as at El Palmar and, in consequence, 

 upon the recommendation of J. C. Harvey, who was the con- 

 sulting expert, a quantity of seed had been obtained from Ceylon 

 and some regular plantings started, comprising, if I recollect 

 rightly, five or ten thousand trees at the time referred to. 

 The Hevea seedlings were interplanted with young Castilloa, a 

 practice which Mr. Harvey had originally adopted on his own 

 private property of Las Palmas, near Buenaventura, with benefi- 

 cial effect, he thought, the indigenous tree affording the sup- 

 posedly more delicate exotic some protection against the unfavor- 

 able phenomena of the dry season, characterized as it is on the 

 Isthmus of Tehuantepec by a relentless sun and spells of a 

 riotous hot south wind lasting for days at a time. It is in my 

 memory that these plantings suffered severely from the dietary 

 attentions of deer, who evinced a fine taste for young Para, and 

 I think that we were ultimately forced to employ some sort of 

 fencing arrangement about the trees. 



It is greatly to be deplored that events in Mexico since 1913 

 should have rendered impossible the task of bringing to fruition 

 these very interesting and valuable planting ventures which, 

 when last seen by the writer, bore every promise of success. It 

 is to be feared that nothing can now remain of them, the region 

 in question (within only a short distance of the important 

 coffee center of Cordoba) having been constantly overrun and 

 plundered by rebel bands. 



RUBBER PLANTING NOTES. 



LOOKING AHEAD IN RUBBER GROWING. 



A British estimate of the future of rubber production and of 

 *^ rubber consumption by a man in a position to know the facts 

 intimately is sure to attract attention. At a meeting of Har- 

 risons & Crosfield- in London on October 27 Mr. George Croll, 

 the chairman, reviewed the rubber situation and compared it 

 with his own forecast made in 1918, before the Rubber Planta- 

 tions Investment Trust. He then asserted his belief to be that 

 if there had been no war, the consumption of rubber would have 

 been much greater than it was and that he saw no reason why 

 the probable large increase in 1919 could not be absorbed. He 

 thinks there is room for great improvement in rubber statistics, 

 but from a careful examination of the best available his con- 

 clusions are as follows : 



After making allowance for the accumulation of the 1918 crop, 

 which was exported from the Eastern countries during the first 

 half of 1919, I now estimate the production of plantation rubber 

 for this year at about 320,000 tons, to which 40,000 tons of wild 



rubber have to be added, making the worlds production of 

 rubber this year 360,000 tons. 



His estimate for the 1920 crop is between 360,000 and 370,000 

 tons; for the 1921 crop, 381,000 tons; for 1922, 403,000 tons, and 

 for 1923, 430,000 tons. 



In regard to consumption he expects the United Slates to 

 import in 1919 about 220,(XX) tons ; the United Kingdom to make 

 a poor showing with 40,000 tons; France 30,000 tons, Italy 15,000 

 tons, Canada 10,000 tons, Japan 10,000 tons and the rest of the 

 world 25,000 tons, a total consumption of 350,000 tons out of 

 the 360,000 tons produced. The consumption in 1919 will take 

 care of the production and Mr. Croll thinks that that will be 

 true of 1920 and 1921 also. 



British capital owns approximately 80 per cent of the planta- 

 tion rubber industry, which is far from being the case with the 

 consuming end. From July, 1914, to June, 1915, the United 

 States took 141,000 tons of rubber and the United Kingdom 

 21,000; in the twelve months from July, 1918, through June, 

 1919, the United States took 180,000 tons and the United King- 

 dom only 50,500 tons, and as Great Britain has a large transit 

 trade, a great part of this even was reexported as crude rubber. 



AVERAGE YIELD OF HEVEA RUBBER. 



The amount of Hevea rubber yielded per acre on the average 

 in the various rubber plantation districts of India, Ceylon and 

 the British and Dutch East Indies appears in the Bulletin of the 

 Rubber Growers' Association of South India. 



Average Pounds per Acre. 



1917. 1916. 1915. 



Cc^^i^ 312 253 248 



Souili India 218 232 187 



Joliore 298 283 328 



Negri Sembilan 298 283 228 



Perak 382 367 353 



Selangor 344 340 331 



Straits Settlements 247 252 243 



Sumatra 326 309 305 



Java 322 303 253 



Borneo 226 224 170 



The highest record in the list was 607 pounds in a Selangor 

 estate in 1917, the lowest 81 pounds in the Straits Settlements 

 in 1916. 



CEYLON RUBBER PRODUCTION. 



Ceylon in 1918 exported 50,934,460 pounds of rubber, valued 

 at ' $22,226,268, as compared with 75,781,401 pounds, valued at 

 $44,543,785 in 1917; a decrease of one-third in quantity and one- 

 half in value. The exports in 1918 were smaller than in any 

 other year since 1914. This was due partly to the restrictions 

 on the importation of rubber into the United States and to the 

 removal of rubber from the priority list in the United Kingdom 

 and partly to the restriction of the output by the planters. No 

 average price for the year was computed by the Ceylon Chamber 

 of Commerce. The price in 1916 was 58 cents a pound in 1917 

 it was 48 cents, in August, 1918, it was 20 cents a pound for 

 crepe and ISVz cents a pound for ribbed smoked sheets, while 

 toward the end of the year both were selling for about 385^2 

 cents a pound. 



RUBBER CULTURE RESEARCH WORK IN BRITISH INDIA. 



Professor J. B. Farmer in "The India-Rubber Journal" dis- 

 cusses the report of Dr. Butler, imperial mycologist of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture in India, regarding the administration 

 of research work in the British possessions in the Far East. The 

 proposal to unite all agencies for research — government, cor- 

 poration and private — is thoroughly approved, for in all matters 

 of rubber culture the attempt to retain exclusive information 

 seems short sighted. 



Concerning Dr. Butler's projects for a central management 

 for research Professor Farmer is apparently skeptical. The di- 

 vision of responsibility between the government administration, 

 the rubber planters and the scientific experts will be a diffi- 

 cult matter to settle in the East. Professor Farmer suggests that 

 a small scientific committee in London be put in charge. 



