92 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November 1, 1915. 



The close proximity to the forest of Brazil, the home of the 

 Ht'vea. may in a measure account for the rapid and successful 

 growth of the trees on the company's concessions. It must not 

 be forgotten that the land on which these 39,418 rubber trees 

 are flourishing so luxuriantly is purely mountainous and rather 

 rocky. This fact goes to prove the theory of some planters in 

 the colony to be all wrong that Hevca only thrives well on the 

 flat marshy soils on the coast, where the plantations are located. 

 The distance from the coast to the mines is about 200 miles, 

 along the winding Maroni river, and then into the Lawa, which 

 takes its rise in the Tumuc Humac mountains, which divide the 

 colony of Dutch Guiana from Brazil. 



RliVIV.\L OF THE BALATA INDUSTRY. 



Although bleeding operations began late in the season, the re- 

 turns have been considered satisfactory under the circumstances, 

 and the amount of balata so far reported at the Custom House is 

 745,960 kilograms [1,641,112 pounds]. There are several thou- 

 sand kilos, however, not yet ready for shipment from the con- 

 cessions to Paramaribo, owing to the dry state of the upper 

 rivers which renders transportation slow and expensive. A 

 journey that is accomplished under nornial conditions in three 

 or four days sometimes in dry weather requires as much as 

 twenty days. 



Balata gathering, with the thousand and one difficulties con- 

 nected therewith, is not an ideal job and those engaged in 

 the business are deserving of every encouragement and support. 



The company in New York that was instrumental in adjusting 

 the new ordinance, through the authorities at Washington, of 

 which mention was made in the September number of The India 

 Rubber World, is doing well and expects to reap a good harvest 

 of balata, although operations began late in the season. This 

 concern is operating with a very large number of laborers and 

 has a substantial office administration in Paramaribo. It is an 

 e-xaniple of what can be accomplished when capital and intel- 

 ligence are combined. 



Since my last communication, importations from the United 

 States have increased by 100 per cent., and, especially noticeable 

 are such commodities as beef, pork, flour, fish, canned goods, 

 with a large quantity of kerosene oil and gasolene. This increase 

 in the imports only goes to prove that matters are being grad- 

 ually adjusted in the balata business, and that in the course of 

 time this once flourishing industry will revive and become, as 

 in times past, the colony's main source of revenue. 



The prospecting season begins in a few days, and several ex- 

 peditions are leaving town for the interior, where line-cutting 

 will continue until the end of the year. It is said by some well- 

 informed people that vast tracts of country have been recently 

 discovered with as many as ten trees of tappable size to the acre. 



LF..\I" DISEASES ON THE RLT.BER PLANTATIONS IN SURINAM 

 AND BRITISH GUIANA. 

 In consequence of the reported outbreak of leaf disease in con- 

 nection with the rubber trees on some of the plantations in the 

 colony. I communicated with a plantation proprietor in British 

 Guiana — where all, or nearly all, of the trees are said to be af- 

 flicted — to ascertain what steps had been taken in that colony to 

 check the spread of the disorder, and was informed that G. E. 

 Bodkin, the government economic biologist, had left Georgetown 

 for the government experimental station at Christianburg, where 

 he will undertake certain measures to ascertain the most effective 

 way of controlling the disease by spraying. 



The disease is said to have affected the rubber trees at the 

 Consolidated Co.'s plantations in the northwest and on the Es- 

 sequibo, at Coverden on the Demerara river, Greenheart Camp, 

 and at the Christianburg experimental station. It has not yet 

 been ascertained whether Berbice county has been affected also. 



Professor Harrison has stated that the disease was first noticed 

 by him about 1900, at Noitgedacht, in the Canal Polder, and 

 then at Greenheart Camp, and subsequently at Christianburg, 

 where the government experimental station is located. His de- 



partment investigated, and since that time the disease has been 

 reported at various rubber estates. Some of them have been 

 very extensively attacked, and some slightly, where the pest 

 was looked after in time. Now the department is taking steps 

 to see what is the most effective way of dealing with the disease. 

 He anticipates that on the return of the government biologist 

 from Christianburg he will be able to give some definite facts. 



Professor Harrison pointed out that the most unfortunate part 

 of the disease was that after it attacked the plants it checked their 

 growth. Then after the leaves had fallen there was always the 

 possibility of the disease extending to the other plants. It is 

 wise to keep the disease under control at an early period; but 

 complaints are now coming in from planters who possibly have 

 not done so. Professor Harrison was also of the opinion that 

 the disease had possibly spread from the native to the cultivated 

 rubber, trees. 



Mr. Petch, the government mycologist at Ceylon, writing re- 

 cently about the leaf diseases of the Hcvca Brasilicnsis, said : 

 "The fungus which causes the diseases was first described by 

 Hennings in 1904, under the name of Dothidclla Ulci. The speci- 

 mens had been collected by Ule in the upper Amazon Valley, 

 Jurua (Acre Territory), on the banks of the Rio Jurua, Mirum 

 (Acre Territory), and on the banks of the Amazon in the neigh- 

 borhood of Iquitos (Peru). Hennings did not give an account 

 of the injuries caused by the fungus. Dr. Huber, however, on 

 the occasion of his visit to Ceylon, stated that it sometimes 

 caused serious damage and defoliated the trees. In 1911," con- 

 tinues Mr. Petch, "Dr. J. Kuyper described what was considered 

 a different leaf disease of Hcvca from Surinam. The disease 

 occurs in three forms. In the first stage the young leaves, only 

 three to five days old, exhibit transparent olive green or dark 

 green patches, which are sometimes so numerous that the whole 

 leaf blackens and collapses. In the nurseries, sometimes, every 

 plant is attacked. Hcvca leaves grow rapidly, and apparently 

 the fungus cannot attack the older tissues. More recently, Ban- 

 croft has recorded another leaf disease, from British Guiana. 

 The symptoms were a spotting of the leaves, followed by an 

 increase in the size of the spots, with the production of dried 

 areas which eventually fall away from the green parts, leaving 

 holes in the leaf surface." Mr. Petch concludes that it would 

 appear probable, therefore, that the British Guiana leaf disease 

 is the same as that of Brazil and Surinam. 



The Department of Agriculture at Paramaribo is now making 

 extensive examinations on many of the rubber plantations with 

 a view of adopting the best scientific measures for combating 

 the disease. On a recent visit to plantation Voorburg the cour- 

 teous manager, Mr. Arntz, was kind enough to take me through 

 his drying factory, where I was treated to a sight of nearly 1,000 

 kilograms of fine Para rubber in sheets. This plantation is run 

 by an experienced man and can lay claim to being the best rubber 

 producing estate in Dutch Guiana. 



Mr. Arntz informed me that previous to his trip to the Far 

 East last year he was quite pessimistic about thp rubber industry 

 ever making good in the colony, but since he was in a position 

 to see for himself and to study Far East conditions he has now 

 become quite an optimist and entertains great hopes for the 

 future rubber industry in Dutch Guiana. 



ARGENTINE EXPORT PROHIBITION. 



.\ recent presidential decree of the Argentine Republic pro- 

 hibits, among numerous other things, the exportation of rubber 

 goods. 



VENEZUELAN CUSTOMS TARIFF LAW. 



The Republic of Venezuela has promulgated a new customs 

 tariff law, in which goods are specified under categories rather 

 than under each class of the tariff, Waterproof clothes of wool 

 and rubber are dutiable at 10 per cent, ad valorem; while water- 

 proof clothes of cotton and rubber are taxed 25 per cent, specific ; 

 rubber belting at 25 per cent, specific, and suspenders, braces and 

 garters at 50 per cent, specific 



