326 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July i, 1908. 



time goes on, provided we get good prices, which we can do. 

 What we should like is a list of the different plantations, in 

 ■order to be able to communicate with them," 



MR. HARVEY'S TREATMENT OF "CASTILLOA" LATEX. 



^Ir. James C. Harvkv, one of the pioneers in systematic rub- 

 ber planting in Mexico, and now manager of an important plan- 

 tation there, has written to a friend some notes on the treat- 

 ment of Castilloa rubber, from which, while not meant for pub- 

 lication, The India Rubber World is now able to print some 

 extracts, as follows : 



"My idea with regard to the treatment of 'scrap' is this : 

 Immediately after gathering it in baskets, loosely place it on 

 wire racks, through which smoke can penetrate easily, and of 

 course, a proper house must be constructed that will be sufficient- 

 ly air tight to hold smoke ; then have a little furnace quite de- 

 tached from said house, and into which the smoke can be driven 

 through a pipe by the action of a very simple revolving fan, 

 thus avoiding any great increase of temperature in the smoke- 

 house, as doubtless you know that a temperature much above 

 100° F. is apt to cause the rubber to become sticky. 



"This is easily proved by exposing any recently prepared scrap 

 or plancha to the action of the sun ; then after the scrap is 

 smoked in the manner described my idea is that it should be 

 pressed into blocks of perhaps of 5 or 10 pounds in size. It 

 will be understood that the block is in this manner thoroughly 

 antisepticized throughout, and undoubtedly we must find what 

 material would be best to use in creating this smoke, as cer- 

 tain materials, for a given volume of smoke, contain a higher 

 percentage of creosote than others. 



■•With regard to the treatment of the plancha — or I ought to 

 say, the treatment of the latex in order to prepare plancha — I 

 >carried out this year the following method : 



"First, on the receipt of the latex from the field it was mixed 

 with an equal volume of water to facilitate its passage through 

 a comparatively small or fine meshed sieve, thus excluding all 

 extraneous substance, such as little pieces of bark, chips, moss, 

 lichens and what not. To this 4 additional volumes of water 

 ■were added, and the whole placed in a barrel with a faucet 

 ■exactly level with the base of the barrel, the barrel being stood 

 upright. 



"The following morning the latex was found to have arisen 

 to the surface, having been completely separated during the 

 night from the water and other liquids contained in the orig- 

 inal latex. The black water was then drawn off until the latex 

 appeared. Said latex was then in a condition for coagulation, 

 this method being carried out : 



"First, to every 10 gallons of the creamed latex a solution 

 of the vine known here as 'amole' — botanically Ipomoca bonanox 

 — is prepared, employing about 2 pounds of the vine, cutting the 

 same into convenient lengths of about one foot, and preferably 

 xising the more ligneous portion of the vine — that is, portion 

 of it nearest the ground— and where the bark has assumed a 

 brownish color. It has been found that this portion of the 

 vine contains a greater percentage of the coagulating agent than 

 the green part. 



"The solution is then prepared thus: A dozen pieces of the 

 length described are macerated by beating with a mallet or 

 wooden 'truncheon' and rubbed in about 5 gallons of water 

 and then squeezed out, the process occupying but a few minutes 

 time. The resultant liquor is then strained through a very fine 

 sieve and stirred in carefully with the creamed latex. 



"Coagulation, as a rule, will then take place within an hour's 

 time, when the spongy mass can be lifted out carefully and 

 placed upon a table or block and if coagulated in a vessel of 

 about 18 inches in diameter will be found to be of about 3 

 inches in thickness. With a sharp butcher knife it can then be 

 cut into strips of about I'A inches in thickness and can he run 

 backward and forward through an ordinary rubber rolled clothes 



wringer, over which is suspended a vessel containing water 

 which is allowed to run in a little stream on the top of the 

 wringer while the process is being carried on. 



"These strips by the gradual screwing down of the roller 

 can be reduced to about 'A inch in thickness. The wringer proc- 

 ess should be carried on until there is no further evidence of a 

 colored liquor being expressed from the strips or slabs under 

 operation. 



"It will be seen that two ends have been accomplished by 

 this process, a very clean product, and practically the minimum 

 of moisture left in the slab. The strips or slabs are then thrown 

 into clean water, rinsed and hung up in a dark room to dry, then 

 we have found it an excellent plan to suspend them on bamboo 

 rods and when reasonably dry, yet still containing perhaps 

 a small portion of water, the identical smoking process as ap- 

 plied to scrap rubber can be then applied, very soon after which 

 the product will be ready for packing. 



"Undoubtedly the application of more elaborate machinery 

 appliances would prove more economical, yet by employing the 

 process described, two men can easily handle 50 pounds of dry 

 rubber per day." 



NEW METHOD OF TAPPING "CASTILLOA." 



Mr. J. Herbert Foster, manager of the plantation "La Meri- 

 den," in Vera Cruz, Mexico, reports a new method of tapping 

 their cultivated Castilloa rubber. He uses the same knife as 

 before — a knife brought out by Mr. Smith, of Chiapas, and de- 

 scribed sometime in this journal — which cuts a U shaped groove 

 in the bark, but making the cuts only about two-thirds the for- 

 mer depth, and then with a blade like that of a jackknife a 

 deeper cut is made along the middle of the first one. This makes 

 certain that the layer of bark which contains the latex is pene- 

 trated throughout its length, but the cut is so narrow as to make 

 a comparatively trifling wound. It is said that these cuts are 

 entirely healed in two or three months, whereas the old style 

 cuts required a year or two to disappear. 



ROBLITO RUBBER PLANTATION CO. 



Incorporated February 4, 1908, under the laws of .'Arizona ; 

 capital authorized, $600,000; to develop an estate at Mapastepec, 

 in Tonala district, state of Chiapas, Mexico. There are on the 

 property about 10,000 8 year old planted Caslilloa rubber trees 

 and many thousands of wild trees. It is intended to plant rubber 

 largely, and also other tropical crops, besides grazing capital and 

 utilizing the hard woods now on the ground. The headquarters 

 are at Oakland, California. The officers are: William P. Jarvis, 

 president; L. C. Lent, vice president; S. C. Miller, an engineer 

 with much experience in Mexico, general manager ; J. L. Elder, 

 treasurer; L. A. Carter, secretary. 



BRIEF MENTION. 



J\lR. M.\xwell Riddle, of the Republic Development Co. (New 

 York), having returned from a recent sojourn in Mexico, speaks 

 of being particularly impressed with the result of observations 

 in the rubber planting belt, particularly as regards the rate of 

 yield of the young trees when tapped with suitable knife and 

 the low cost at which he found rubber extracted. He has fig- 

 ures pointing to 10 cents Mexican as the cost of getting out rub- 

 ber under specially favorable conditions and expresses the opinion 

 that generally rubber may be got out for twice this figure. 



The last annual inspection of the "Estancia" rubber plantation 

 of the Pennsylvania Obispo Plantation Co. (Scottsdale, Pa.), 

 in Mexico, was made by Mr. W. A. Marvin, chosen for that pur- 

 pose by the shareholders. His report refers also to a number 

 of neighboring estates, and the prospects he regards very favor- 

 able for rubber cultivation in Oaxaca. 



LARGE COMBINATION IN TEA AND RUBBER. 



Harrisons & Crosfield, Limited, is a recent London flotation 

 for combining the old established business of Harrisons & Cros- 

 field and allied tea trading firms, with houses in London, New 

 Vork, and Montreal, and in Ceylon, India, and the Federated 



