March i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



185 



Native Sources of Rubber. 



EUBBZH EXPORTERS ON THE AMAZON. 



THERE were 21 exporters of crude rubber last year from 

 Para and Manaos, not including sundry small shippers who 

 handled all told less than one-half I per cent, of the total. 

 The largest shippers for many years past have been the related 

 firms now styled Schrader, Gruner & Co. (Para) and Dusend- 

 schon, Nommensen & Co. (Manaos), whose combined exports 

 for 1907 amounted to 23,018,850 pounds, or 27J4 per cent, of the 

 whole output for the year from the Amazon region. Their 

 transactions covered more than 30 per cent, of the shipments 

 from Manaos and Para direct. The houses named represent 

 Poel & Arnold, of New York, Boston, and Akron, and Heilbut, 

 Symons & Co., of London and Liverpool. 



NEW GRADE OF RtJBBER FROM MANAOS. 



There was offered at the London rubber auction of December 

 20 a small consignment from Manaos described as plantation 

 sheet Para which it appears was the result of the first actual 

 attempt of imitating eastern plantation methods with Amazon 

 rubber. The London correspondent of Tlie Times of Ceylon 

 hears that the .-Xmazon specimen was considered a good deal 

 stronger and more resilient than the average Eastern plantation 

 sheet, though less clear and bright. The correspondent adds : 

 "The best price offered, 3.r. yd. [=&7 cents] per pound, is hardly 

 indicative of the intrinsic value of the rubber, as probably many 

 buyers were only bidding for the lot for experimental purposes 

 and it was withdrawn for a higher limit." Lewis & Peat, London 

 rubber brokers, describe this as an "interesting parcel,'' prepared 

 from old trees and exceptionally strong; it was sold at a fraction 

 less than Eastern lots. 



RUBBER POSSIBILITIES IN BRAZIL. 



At a meeting in London of the board of The Brazilian Rubber 

 Trust, Limited, a company engaged in e-xploiting rubber in Brazil, 

 the chairman, W. P. Lampage. expressed the belief that even if 

 rubber should decline to I shilling 6 pence [^ 36}/. cents] per 

 pound, the Amazon region would continue to produce extensively. 

 The Ceylon Observer, remarking that "it is wonderful what new 

 economies can be devised when the urgent necessity for them 

 arises," warns planters in the Far East not to be too confident 

 that declining prices will lead to a decreased Amazon output, 

 leaving the planters with less competition. 



SMALL RETURNS FOR FOREST RUBBER CUTTERS. 



A KUBBER trader at Bluefields, Nicaragua, writing to The 



American, of that city, in regard to the new rubber monopoly 



granted by the government, figures out that a merchant who buys 



and ships 100 pounds of rubber must pay — 



To the monopoly concessionaires $10.00 



For export duties 8.20 



Freight, shipping charges, and brokerage 2.45 



Total $20.65 



This rubber, he says, will shrink to 93 pounds on the way to 

 New York, where the rubber will bring say 50 cents a pound, or 

 $46.50, netting the exporter $25.85. If he paid more than 26 cents 

 a pound at Nicaragua he has nothing left for himself. What 

 then must there be for the rubber gatherer in the forest, whose 

 product goes through two or three hands before reaching the 

 export merchant, assuming that the latter figures so as to assure 

 himself a profit? 



AN AMAZING PROSPECTUS. 



The prospectus of The Amazon Trading and Development 

 Co. — to which an editorial article in this issue is devoted — deals 

 with "money making opportunities in the great valley of the 

 Amazon valley" in the most reckless language that has yet 

 been employed in connection with rubber exploitation. The 

 company was incorporated in Maine February 20, 1907, with 



$1,000,000 capital authorized, which limit was raised December 

 9. 1907, to $3,000,000. The original officers, with Maine ad- 

 dresses, were "dunmiics" ; the president now is L. E. Ewing, a 

 lawyer, of Cleveland, Ohio, and the treasurer A. B. Lewis, "cap- 

 italist and mine owner," No. i Wall street, New York. The 

 alleged object is to trade in rubber and other Amazon prod- 

 ucts, with headquarters on the river Jurua, employing 15 steam- 

 ers and 25 gasoline launches. "This fleet, it is expected, will be 

 in commission by April 15 of the present year," says the pros- 

 pectus. It may be remarked, by the way, that the booklet is not 

 dated, so that "the present year" may be construed to suit any 

 reader. 



JEaUIE (THE NEW ■■MANIHOT") RUBBER. 



The Xotichlaft of the royal botanical gardens at Berlin devotes 

 an extra number (January 25, 1908) of 52 pages, with plates, to a 

 study of "Kautschukgewinning und Kautschukhandel in Bahia" 

 by Ernest Ule, whose work in the Amazon rubber region has 

 proved of such interest. and value. The source of "caucho" 

 or Peruvian rubber, it will be remembered, is now identified as 

 Castilloa Ulei, in recognition of his studies bearing upon this 

 species. In Bahia Herr Ule has identified three species of 

 Manihot, m addition to the Manihoi Glaziovii, of which so much 

 has been written, and which is widely identified with the rubber 

 known commercially as "Cara" or "manicoba." Until recently all 

 the manigoba was supposed to be the product of one species, but 

 it now appears that there are several distinct species, of differing 

 values as rubber producers, some being better adapted than others 

 for cultivation. 



Bahia of late has outstripped the state of Ceara in rubber pro- 

 duction and special attention has been attracted by a quality 

 which takes its name from the town or region of Jequie. [See 

 The lNm.\ Rubber Worlp. October i, 1907 — page 9.] Herr LHe 

 designates the tree producing Jequie rubber as Manihot dichotomo. 



Not a little interest has been shown in Great Britain of late 

 in rubber exploitation in Bahia. The Bahia Rubber and Fibre 

 Plantations was registered in London January 21, 1908, with 

 £150,000 [=$729,975] capital, to acquire several plantations already 

 formed and to extend them. 



FRENCH WEST AFRICA— PRODUCTION. 



The following statistics of exports of crude rubber (in metric 

 tons) appear in a report by Yves Henry, director of agriculture: 



Ivory 



Ye.\rs. Guinea. Soudan. Casamance. Coast. Tot.al. 



1902 1155 324 225 912 2616 



1903 1468 533 379 1167 3547 



1904 1382 618 382 1536 3918 



1905 1415 615 402 1180 3612 



1906 1580 765 417 1518 4280 



MONOPOLY OF RUBBER IN NICARAGUA. 



The organization was mentioned in our last issue of the At- 

 lantic Industrial Co., with a capital of $300,000 (gold), to control 

 the extraction of rubber in the national forests in Nicaragua. It 

 appears that the ne\v company has succeeded to the rights under 

 the concession granted by the government to Guerrero and Mor- 

 reira to gather rubber in the department of Zelaya and certain 

 other districts, for 10 years from September 10, 1905. The terms 

 of the contract with the persons named appeared in full in The 

 India Rubber World October i, 1905 (page 14). The govern- 

 ment of Nicaragua has now conceded the sole right to gather 

 and export rubber from the public domain in the districts 

 of San Juan del Norte and Siquia to Generals Galle and Ascen- 

 sion Flores, for 10 years from June l, 1908. It is rumored that 

 these rights will be transferred to the Atlantic Industrial Co., 

 which will then control the entire rubber production in the 

 national forests of the republic. 



