THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



687 



In 1918 Mozambique exported il,212 worth of rubber, most of 

 it going to the United States. 



In 1913 no American motor car could be found in French 

 West Africa; by the end of 1919 there were 150 passenger auto- 

 mobiles, 80 motor trucks and 15 motorcycles. They are distributed 

 as follows : Motor- 



Autos. Trucks. cycles. 



Stnegal 87 40 1 



Upper Senegal and Nigeria 12 11 4 



Ivory Coast 26 9 



Dahomey. French Tcgoland and the Kaineruns. 25 20 15 



SOUTH AMERICAN NOTES. 



IX .^RGENTIN.^ an exposition of Xorth .•\meric;in manufacturers 

 will be held in Xovember next, in the buildings of the Sociedad 

 Rural in Palermo, Buenos .Mres. It is designed to bring the 

 attention, of South Americans to the products of the United 

 States and has the support of the Chamber of Commerce of the 

 United States in the .\rgentine Republic. 



BRAZILIAN EXPORTS OF RUBBER FOR 1918 AND 1919. 



.Vrgentina . . 

 Belgium .... 

 Denmark ... 

 United State 



United kinl 

 Italy 



Holland ".'.'.. 

 Portugal . . . 



23.299 

 2,556 

 6,769 



eden 



33,252 



Years Before War. W.ir'Ve 



1909-13. 1914-1 



Totals in tons... 38.528 31,36; 



Value in contos. 260,473 123.861 



Value in £1,000 17.020 6.615 



Of total exports of 33,252 tons 

 shipped at Para, 42.3 per cent at Manaos, 0.4 per cent at Itacoa- 

 tiara and Ilha, and 4.2 per cent at sundr>' ports. 



BRAZILIAN RUBBER EXPORTS DECLINE. 



The total shipments of crude rubber froin the ports of Para, 



Manaos, and Itacoatiara, Brazil, and Iquitos, Peru, are de- 

 creasing, as is shown in the following table : 



1919. 1920. 



Tanuary founds 6.624,915 6,273.039 



February 9,242.309 8.162,264 



March 9,512,787 6,916.352 



The price of this commodity continues to be low, and the ef- 

 fect of the low price is seen in the refusal of merchants to place 

 large orders for forward delivery. 



RUBBER DORMANT IN DUTCH AND BRITISH 

 GUIANA. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



IT WAS in 1910-11, during the great rubber boom, that Dutch 

 Guiana contracted rubber fever. Rubber planting was the 

 topic of the day in those days; fortunes were to be made and 

 speculation ran high. The demand on the -Agricultural Depart- 

 ment for seeds could hardly be met; thousands upon thousands 

 were imported from Ceylon and other rubber-producing coun- 

 irics by the Government and sold to planters and others interested 

 in this enterprise. The result of all this is too well known to 

 readers of The India Rubber World, and, although the expected 

 fortunes were not realized, still the great boom has done 

 Dutch Guiana a good turn and who knows what the 

 future has in store for the colony. Rubber is bound to make 

 good. All that is required is cheap production and that will 

 eventually come. 



Rubber production in British Guiana is practically at a stand- 

 still at the present time, as the foreign market hardly makes its 

 collection a profitable undertaking. It is doubtful that the col- 



lection of rubber under existing conditions will pay. The trees 

 arc there either to be lapped unprofitably or allowed to remain 

 untapix>d — preferably the latter course, until there is a greater 

 demand for rubber and improved labor conditions make its col- 

 lection a profitable concern. There is at present a greater demand 

 in London for balata than for rubber, which brings only two 

 shillings and three pence a pound. With the present high price 

 of labor, it is impossible for the colony to compete against the 

 rubber-producing countries in the East. 



The presence of rubber leaf disease in the British colony is also 

 a serious factor in the conditions operating against the produc- 

 tion of rubber. Last year the Consolidated Rubber & Balata 

 Estates, Limited, reported only a very small quantity of rubber 

 from their plantations, owing to the severe attack of leaf disease 

 from which the trees had not recovered. Considerable money 

 was spent to eradicate the disease, but without success, and new 

 planting was abandoned. The leaf disease is still causing a great 

 deal of trouble and adds to the already high cost of production. 



While there is little or no rubber activity at present in British 

 Guiana, there is no reason to consider the industry altogether 

 dead. After the great rubber boom between 1910 and 1911 the 

 production dropped considerably in 1912, when only 216 pounds 

 were exported, but the output rose to 1,340 pounds the following 

 year, dropped to 1,107 pounds in 1914, and rose again in 1915 

 to 4,603 pounds. The export figures went as high as 15,586 

 pounds in 1916, dropped to 14,781 pounds the following year and 

 reached their highest — 23,854 pounds — in 1918. Although condi- 

 tions were not very favorable in 1919, the total export of rubber 

 from British Guiana was the second largest within the eight 

 years under review, amounting to 17,793 pounds. During the first 

 four months of this year 4,760 pounds were exported. The fig- 

 ures quoted do not seem to justify the view that the industry is 

 abandoned. 



It has been successfully demonstrated by experimental plant- 

 ings in British Guiana that large areas are eminently suitable for 

 the cultivation of Para rubber. Tapping the Para rubber trees 

 found in the colony was begun in 1910 on two estates on the 

 Demerara river. The quality of the rubber was good and it 

 was valued very highly in the London market. Since then there 

 has been a general disposition in British Guiana to plant Heica 

 brasilicnsis. 



The cost of rubber cultivation also had special attention 

 and investigation by the Department of Science and Agriculture 

 in 1911, when, on flatlands w-hich required to be thoroughly 

 drained and cultivated, the cost was estimated to be from $65 

 to $7Q per acre during the first year, with an annual expenditure 

 of from $25 to $30 per acre in subsequent years. 



There are extensive rubber cultivations in British Guiana and 

 it is regrettable that tapping operations on a large scale cannot 

 proceed, owing to tlic labor conditions and the unremuncrative 

 rubber market. 



In Dutch Guiana the labor question is practically settled, for 

 large numbers of Javanese are arriving, and these are expert 

 tappers and best adapted for rubber enterprises. 



It is to be hoped, however, that both British and Dutch Guiana 

 in the course of time will become large rubber producing 

 countries. 



BALATA NOTES FROM DUTCH GUIANA. 



The year 1919 closed with a fairly satisfactory export sheet. 

 The balata exported to the outside world and produced under 

 the most trying circumstances has proved that the colony is still 

 a valuable asset to the Netherlands. 



The balata exported amounted to 493,907 kilos, of which 38,348 

 kilos was sent to Holland, 138,302 to the United States, 49,869 to 

 France, 259,290 to England, 8.097 to other countries. 



Tlio importations from the United States reached the high 

 figure of $4,313,101, and ihe total value of exports to that country 



