THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



sheet would ordinarily have been used. The smoked sheet was 

 replaced entirely with the cactus rubber without reducing the 

 quality of the heels so far as could be determined. It is interest- 

 ing to note that the reclaimed rubber used in this case would 

 not stick to the rolls and could not be milled until about two 

 pounds of the cactus rubber was added, when it immediately 

 began to spread out evenly over the roll and continued to adhere 

 thereto until the milling was completed. A number of rubber 

 heels were made from this stock, all of which appeared to be of 

 good quality. 



It is the opinion of the writer, as well as of others who assisted 

 in the experiments, that the ginn is in every way equal lo guayule 

 and in some respects superior, among which may be mentioned 

 the readiness with which it vulcanizes and the e.xtent to which 

 it will actually replace crude rubber without an apparent reduction 



in the quality of the linishcd product. This would evidently place 

 it in a class with crude rubber itself. For use in frictions where 

 penetrating qualities are necessary the gum possesses this prop- 

 erty to a marked degree. 



The results of these experiments indicate that it may be only 

 a question of time until America may have a new and important 

 industry — the production of rubber from her deserts and waste 

 lands. Los Angeles is already the cynosure of the eyes of the 

 rubber world as the nucleus of a new and rapidly growing rubber 

 manufacturing center. The production of long-staple cotton of 

 highest quality in Southern California has quickly sprung from 

 infancy to a well recognized commercial success and if the cactus 

 rubber possibilities materialize, the United States and even Cali- 

 fornia will be able to produce a complete tire from her own raw 

 materials. 



Old and New Methods in Cotton Warehousing and Financing. 



By Richard H. 



tinP-HE FINANCING of a cotton crop is one of the most difficult, 

 X and at the same time one of the most important prob- 

 lems confronting the southern farmer and business man." 

 This is quoted from an address made in 1915, by R. L. Nixon, 

 ■specialist in warehousing of the Bureau of Markets, Department 

 of Agriculture. At that time cotton was worth approximately 

 ten cents a pound and the South was suffering from a disruption 

 of trade caused by the war. With prices practically four times 

 those of 1915, the difficulty and importance of the problems be- 

 ■come intensified in proportion. 



A COTTON CROP WORTH TWO AND A QUARTER BILLION 

 DOLLARS. 



It is a recognized fact that but little cotton would be stored 

 or insured were it not necessary to do so in order to negotiate 

 loans with cotton as collateral. Banks have always been willing 

 to advance money on cotton on liberal terms when properly 

 warehoused and insured up to the limit of their capacity but, 

 with a cutton crop worth $750,000,000, as it w^as in 1915, and 



ladley Tinglcy. 

 LACK OF UNIFORMITY IN WAREHOUSE LAWS AND RECEIPTS. 



There are many stumbling blocks in the way of a nation-wide 

 participation in cotton financing, many of which will have to be 

 removed before cotton credits can be placed on a liquid footing 

 commensurate with the importance of the business. In the first 

 place, except in the cities of the Cotton Belt and the large 

 commercial centers of the North and East, the 'banks do not 

 understand cotton paper, it has been outside the line of their 

 activities, and in the second place, the warehousing laws of the 

 country are by no means standardized. Practically every state 

 has its own laws regulating warehouse operations, which differ, 

 often in essential features, from those of other states. It can- 

 not be expected that a national bank officer in, say, Minne- 

 apolis is familiar with all of these laws. To keep himself in- 

 formed, would be an undertaking for which he has not the time. 

 Cotton paper, based on warehouse receipts for goods in store 

 at, say, Atlantic, Georgia, docs not interest him. 



a crop valued at $2,250,000,000 as is this year— and all of it 

 credit cotton at one stage or another, and sometimes oftener 

 than at one stage— the problem assumes gigantic proportions. 

 Such enormous sums, of necessity, take it out of the hands of the 

 ■comparatively small coterie of southern and northern banks 

 that heretofore found little difficulty in handling the business, 

 and call for nation-wide bank participation— a participation made 

 possible by the provisions of the Federal Reserve Banking Act. 



_ .:, Texas, Cotton Warehouse, Protectee 



AGAINST Fire by Automatic Sprinklers. 

 In the third place, there is a woeful lack of uniformity in the 

 receipts given for goods in store issued by warehousemen in 

 different sections of the country. There is no standardized prac- 

 tice in this respect and, in consequence, cotton paper to which 

 is attached a receipt for the cotton stored in a warehouse in, 

 say, Houston, Texas, is not interesting to a banker of Norfolk, 

 Virginia. He not only does not understand the Texas laws 

 that regulate and prescribe the form of receipt but he does not 



