July 1, 1916.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Rubber Planting Notes. 



COSTS OF PRODUCTION OF PLANTATION RUBBER. 



THK advisability of publishing '>r nut publishing costs of 

 production of plantation rubbir is a subject that is 

 troubling the minds of the directors of Far Eastern rubber 

 plantation companies. 



With the constant growth of the consumption and the increase 

 in production of plantation rubber, the cost of production has 

 been decreasing. Each year the cost is lower than the preceding, 

 a tendency that is in evidence in the following table, compiled 

 from figures disclosed in company reports recently published. 

 This shows the production cost per pound of dry crude rubber 

 for the past three years. 



Cost per Pound in U. S. Currency. 



Banteng (Selaugor) cpnts 48.74 



Bekoh 44.00 



Batak Rabit 32.50 



Broome ( Selangor) 56.00 



Bukit Lintang 39.33 



Inch Kenneth 39.40 



Kamuning 44.33 



Seaport 46.33 



Seletar 50.66 



Sangkai Chumor 43.33 



Tanjong Maliin 53.66 



Average cost 45.30 



TAPPING SYSTEMS. 



In his annual report on agriculture for 1915, in North Borneo, 

 E. Bateson, director of agriculture, made some remarks on 

 tapping systems. He wrote : 



It will probably be some years before the relative merits of 

 the different systems are definitely established to the satisfac- 

 tion of everyone ; in the meantime it is desirable to adopt the 

 system which has the balance of experimental evidence in its 

 favor. The system which appears likely to become most gen- 

 eral in North Borneo is that of placing two cuts one above the 

 other on a single quarter of the tree. On anatomical and 

 physiological grounds, however, there is good reason for be- 

 lieving that it is better to place the two cuts on adjacent quar- 

 ters. Tliis has been confirmed by tapping experiments in the 

 Federated Malay States, which, so far as they have gone, all 

 indicate the superiority of the adjacent-quarters system in point 

 of yield. A further advantage of this system is that it favors 

 the nourishment of the renewing bark, and gives quicker renewal 

 than the single-quarter system. When trees are tapped on 

 adjacent quarters the cuts are commonly made in the form of 

 a V, but it has been proved that a tapping cut sloping up to 

 the left yields about 14 per cent more rubber than a cut of 

 the same length sloping up to the right. A left-handed half- 

 spiral, therefore, will yield about 7 per cent more than the 

 basal V. 



EXPORT DUTIES ON CAMEKOONS CRUDE RUBBER. 



The British Board of Trade announces that the German im- 

 ports and exports tariff remains in operation in the Cameroons, 

 which is now under British military occupation. 



The export duty on rubber, except plantation rubber, which is 

 exempt from duty under special provisions, amounts to four 

 cents per pound in United States currency. 



RUBBER PROSPERITY OF THE FEDERATED UALAY STATES. 



E. Burnside, Commissioner of Trade and Customs, Federated 

 Malay States, in a speech at the general meeting of the Se- 

 langor Chamber of Commerce, reviewing the prosperity of the 

 Federated Malay States in the last 25 years, said that in 

 1890 the total value of the trade of the four States amounted to 

 only £5,714,187 [$27,808,091], whereas in 1915 it was valued at 

 £26,106,773 [$127,048,611]. The total exports of plantation rub- 

 ber in 1915 amounted to 44,523 tons, with a value for revenue 

 purposes of £10.897,365 [$53,032,047], more than 40 per cent of 

 the total value of exports. 



RUBBER IN NYASALAND. 



The British Colonial Report on Nyasaland for the fiscal year 

 1914-1915, recently published, would lead to the belief that rub- 

 ber cultivation is not a success in the Protectorate. With the 

 low prices prevailing during the year covered by the report, 

 little interest centered in rubber, and most of the estates in the 

 Nyasaland Shire Highlands have ceased tapping or abandoned 

 cultivation. 



The harvesting of wild rubber has practically ceased, and at 

 the prevailing prices there is little likelihood of any quantity of 

 Ceara and wild rubber being exported. The Hevea rubber 

 planted in the West Nyasa district is giving indications of satis- 

 factory development. The value of the exported crop amounted 

 to only £3,423 [$16,658], as compared with £9.598 [$46,709], show- 

 ing a decrease of £6,175 [$30,050]. The area under cultivation 

 dropped from 10,562 acres to 5,936. 



RUBBER FROM GERMAN WEEDS. 



|V/IENTION has been made of the efforts of German scientists 

 ^"* to obtain rubber from plants indigenous to Central Eu- 

 rope. The following letter, from a chemist in Leipzig, who has 

 been drafted into government work, will be read with interest. 



To THE Editor of The Indi.\ Rubber World : 



In your excellent journal, dated May 1, 1916, your German cor- 

 respondent speaks somewhat sceptically of the value of some 

 plants as a source of caoutchouc. I w'rite to inform you that 

 German scientists have apparently found a really valuable plant 

 for this purpose in Lactuca Viminalis (in German called Ruteii- 

 lattich). Exhaustive tests have shown that the milk exuding 

 from cuts in stem and root of this plant, after the latter has 

 reached the age of 18 months, consists of a dark yellow liquid 

 which on exposure to the air turns brown and becomes exceed- 

 ingly tough and sticky. As the plant reaches a height of six feet, 

 and the milk is fairly abundant, the yield of a field of Ruten- 

 lattich in this "rubber substitute" is not by any means to be de- 

 spised. 



According to the announcement of government chemists who 

 have made the tests, the milk contains about .49 of caoutchouc, 

 representing a very high percentage, as there are only a few 

 rubber plants which exceed it (Hcvea Bracilieiisis — only .30; 

 other Hcvca species even less!).* Plans are said to be under way 

 now to cultivate this Lactuca species throughout Germany, it 

 being found wild only in the southeastern sections, south of the 

 Warthe and east of the Elbe rivers, as well as in Austria-Hun- 

 gary. 



In the course of the investigations covering the various types 

 of "rubber weeds" it was found that the G'dnscdistel (goose 

 thistle) yields a fair quality of caoutchouc to the extent of .16; 

 IVolfsmilch (wolf's milk) contains .27 of caoutchouc, and many 

 other plants of these families yield caoutchouc in quantities 

 ranging from .12 to .25 per cent. 



latex yields from .30 



.45 o£ . 



NEW JAPANESE RUBBER COMPANY. 



The American Consul-General, Yokohama, Japan, reports that 

 several business men in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, are planning 

 tc promote a rubber company, with a capital of 2,0(X),000 yen 



[$997,000], in the Federated Malay States. 



Constantinople, in normal times, annually exports waste rubber 

 to tlie amount of 900,000 pounds valued at about $50,000. Rubber 

 shoes are imported to the value of approximately $400,0(X), and 

 the extent to which the United States participates in this trade 

 is shown by the figures for 1913 and 1914. In the former year 

 we sent to Constantinople 121,988 pairs, valued at $59,155. In 

 1914 the figures were 64,278 pairs, valued at $33,097. 



