THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October 1, 1915. 



necessity for rubber plantations 

 italist pays any attention to it." 



"The rubber forests are 

 boundless, inexhaustible. 

 Hardly the fringe has been 

 touched." 



"What is the use of trying 

 to do what the Almighty has 

 done so well for us ?" 



It is necessary to make some 

 such exhibit as the foregoing 

 in order that we may under- 

 stand the amazing frame of 

 mind which has permitted the 

 sweeping away of the forests 

 which have supplied the gutta 

 percha of which the world has 

 stood in need. Buy all that 

 comes ; make all the money 

 possible out of it ; let poster- 

 ity look out for itself. What 

 has posterity done for us? 

 Seventy years of this attitude 

 have reduced the once abun- 

 dant supply of gutta percha 

 trees to such an extent that 

 they are now found only in 

 remote districts, where the re- 

 maining specimens are being 

 mercilessly combed out. The 

 usual solemn ceremony of 

 locking the stable after the 

 horse is stolen has been faith- 

 fully carried out and forest 

 regulations have been made 

 after the forests were stripped. 

 It has been said that there was 

 no danger of extermination 



exists and therefore 



Map of the Philippines. 



^liaded Portion Shows the Distribution t 



because the natives would not kill out young trees for the reason vv-as felled or even a i 



that these would not produce gutta percha. As well say that pectcd to he found mingled 



cattle would not 



be exterminated 



so long as young 



calves were not 



killed. The trees 



old enough to 



produce seeds 



were old enough 



to produce gutta 



percha and this 



pronounced their 



doom. 



The amount nf 

 gutta percha im- 

 ported into the 

 United Kingdom 

 in 1849 was, in 

 round figures, 

 one and a half 

 milUon pounds. 

 Since that time 

 it has fluctuated 

 from a little over 

 a million to a 

 maximum, 

 in 1900, of over 



pounds. As this includes balata and as there is a little true 

 gutta percha sent from the I-'ar East to other European countries, 

 the two items may well bal- 

 ance each other ; and live mil- 

 lion pounds annually may be 

 taken as the world's recent 

 production of gutta percha. If 

 the only use for gutta percha 

 were the replacement of exist- 

 ing cable lines and these 

 should last an average of forty 

 .\ears, half the present supply 

 would be required to meet this 

 demand. And when we con- 

 sider that the present supply 

 comes by natives going further 

 and further into the fastnesses 

 of the wilderness, it is evident 

 that the end of the tale is near 

 the telling and that it is a con- 

 dition and not a theory that 

 confronts us. 



The gutta percha coming 

 from some far tropic isle, 

 where every prospect pleases 

 and only man is vile, has had 

 a long and unfortunate ac- 

 quaintance with that vile ex- 

 ception and thousands of tons 

 nf cnncrete evidence of his 

 \ illainy have been shipped 

 across tlie seas in innocent 

 cakes of gutta percha, which, 

 like charity, is made to cover 

 a multitude of sins. Of course, 

 some bark and chips with other 

 extraneous matter, like bits of 

 the herbage on which the tree 

 le of the soil, might reasonably be ex- 



ith an adhesi' 



;<<;>• ^^i". 



''■<V ^"^NOS 



TM£_WPM /iCOae^ tVO/fLi) 



^ -'"^''C^ 



preparation being 



made at that time for several great cables. In 1912 the i 



portations into Great Britain amounted to about five mill 



M.\p Showing Distribution of Palaquium Gutt.^ 



Rectangular Figure Marks the Area of Its Best Growth. 



Sticks. Stones 

 possible." 



used-up hatchets, etc.. 

 (To Be CoHtin. 



gum gathered by 

 clumsy and care- 

 less workers. But 

 this does not ex- 

 plain the sticks 

 and stones, the 

 dirt and rubbish 

 of a thousand 

 kinds which pass 

 through the cus- 

 tom house, con- 

 cealed by gutta 

 percha, like nuts 

 c o \- e r e d with 

 chocolate. 



Analyses show 

 that the dirt runs 

 from practically 

 nothing to as 

 high as forty per 

 cent. Dr. Sher- 

 man, of the Phil- 

 ippine Fores' 

 Service, says that 

 t h e natives, in 

 preparing the 

 gutta percha for 

 market, "place 

 the dirt, bark, 

 on the inside as much as 



