58 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November 1, 1915. 



value very much liki- a clay liaiik containing thousands 



■if dollars' worth of ahuninum, which it would cost tens of 



thousands to ixtract. I'iiysical and chemical processes both 



were tried with varying success, the chief chemical processes 



lieing the dissolving out with various petroleum products or 



with toluene, or with other resinous distillates. By this means 



:.;utta percha of a high degree of commercial purity and low 



re<in-content was obtained, but there were strong disputes as 



to its availability for cable purposes. It was maintained by 



some chemists that, notwithstanding the 



resins were more detrimental than 



the larger proportion found in the 



ordinary commercial gutta percha. 



In the leaf gulta percha the resin 



is chiefly alhan, and it was claimc'l 



that a more nearly equal mixturi 



of alban and Huavil. even in larger 



jiroportion to the amount of gulta 



improved the dialectric and teiisi 



]iroperties. The earlier leaf gutta 



percha was also distinctly colore 



with chlorophyl, and "green gutt:i 



was put down in the market as ■ 



cli.stinctly inferior grade. 



The mechanical production ii 

 voives the comparatively simp 

 process — on paper — of grindiii 

 and boiling the leaves. As a ma 

 ter of fact, it was only after pr^ 

 longed study and effort that tl 

 mechanical details were perfecte 

 and commercial success attainei 

 This, however, has been done, an 

 a large part of the future supiil 

 of gutta percha will certainly be 

 of leaf origin. It is not likely, 

 however, that leaf production will 

 ever figure largely in the case of 

 wild forest trees. To carry the 

 necessary machinery to the forests, 

 or to carry the leaves to the set- 

 tlements, would not be an easily 



It is, then, to the cultivat-jd 

 Palaqumui groves that we must 



look, and that involves a good look ahead, for the "taban 

 merak" is a slow-growing tree, and if "the man who plants 

 pears, plants for his heirs." the same is even more true of 

 gutta percha. l'>ut we, who are the heirs of all the ages, have 

 reason to be glad that others bejore us have looked out for 

 us, and, while most of us are selfish and short-sighted, there 

 are in every generation a few who are wise beyond their time. 

 ( )ne of these was J. E. Teysmann, who, in 1856, procured the 

 planting of some trees of "taban merak" at the residency 

 gardens at Buitzenzorg, of which he was curator from 1830 

 to 1869. From the few trees then planted will come a fat 

 greater part of the world's future supply than from all the 

 countless millions then standing in the "inexhaustible forests,' 

 which short-sighted persons were engaged in exploiting. These 

 furnished the stock of the gardens planted at Tjipetir, in Java. 

 I'rcm these gardens will come the stock of most of the future 

 gutta percha ]ilantations of the Kast Indies — that is to say, of 

 the world. 



The plantations are on the south coast of Java, and are situ- 

 ated at an elevation of 1,700 feet. The first planting was made 

 under the supervision of Dr. P.urck. There are now about 

 2,500 acres under planting. At the beginning the trees are 

 planted four feet apart each way. After three years they have 

 grown So that thinning must be resorted to. and the leaves and 



young twigs are utilized n r the production of gutta percha. 

 From this time on, the iiroportion of gutta percha obtained 

 grows greater, and from a mature plantation it is believed that 

 there can be had about one hundred pounds to the acre. Of 

 this, about three-fourths would be from the leaves, while one- 

 fourth would be obtained by tapping by the herring-bone method. 

 If the leaf-gutta lacks in any degree the qualities of that ob- 

 tained by tapping, it is at least superior to most of that which 

 comes to the market, while for purity and evenness of standard. 

 laulalions is. of course, uneqnale<l. 

 \\ prices paid in recent years for 

 he best qualities a yield of ac 

 ast $150 an acre for a long series 

 f years is one which could easily 

 r anticipated. 

 Wireless telegraphy is invaluable 

 1 providing communication with 

 hips at sea, and it is highly useful 

 1 supplementing cable communica- 

 i.iu. But, so far as the demand for 

 ^^ gutta percha is concerned, it is 

 J^n. l''<tly to make for its increase 

 ABE ratlur than otherwise. For the 

 ^^^1 \\ireless. being much less capablt 

 ,-^|f oi monopolization than cable com- 

 j aft J inunicalion, tends to set a limit to 

 I he price which can be charged for 

 HKssages. On the other hand, for 

 long distances, the cable can be 

 opi rated more cheaply. The wire- 

 less keeps down the rate. The 

 cai)le company bids for business at 

 lower rates. Lower rates mean 

 more messages; greater facilities; 

 more cables, more gutta percha. 



Gutta percha species of various 

 sirls have been planted here and 

 th.ere through the Malay peninsula. 

 I'.xperiments conducted by the for- 

 est department in 1913-14 consisted 

 in cutting off some sixty gutta 

 trees at a height of about 15 feet 

 and plucking from 50 to 100 per 

 cent, of their leaves. These trees 

 had put out new shoots and grown 

 new leaves five months after their mutilation and their appear- 

 ance was quite healthy, proving that the growing gutta tree can 

 be relieved each year of all its leaves without fatal injury. 



In tapping experiments one thousand and thirty trees hav- 

 ing a minimum girth of 18 inches produced a total of 409 pounds 

 of clean gutta, or an average of 6.35 ounces per tree. In no 

 case were the trees excessively damaged, most of them being 

 only slightly tapped. Some trees measuring from 30 to 42 

 inches in girth produced as high as 11 ounces each, while 17 

 trees exceeding 42 inches in girth produced IJS pounds. 



The French Government also has planted with I'ulaquiiim 

 «utta. Payciia Lcrii, and other gutta trees in Algeria, Mada- 

 gascar, Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana. The growth 

 of these trees is exceedingly slow, and it is generally felt that 

 private planters should not be expected to tie up their capital 

 for so long a time, but that governments should do the planting. 

 The area that can be profitably planted with Pahiiiiium gutta 

 remains to be seen. Besides countries to which the tree is na- 

 tive there are — Java, where success has already been attained; 

 probably the Celebes, the Philip|)ines, the Moluccas and New- 

 Guinea; also Ceylon and the southern part of British India. 

 Not improbably, also, certain localities in the corresponding 

 latitudes of Africa z:A South America. 



(To he conliinii-d.) 



