•ARY 1, 1916.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



A)3 



on tapped areas and increase the risk of fungoid diseases. But, 

 generally speaking, indiscriminate pruning is more likely to re- 

 tard than to hasten bark renewal because the bark is formed 

 from within the tree, not from without. The leaves create the 

 substances the tree uses for repairing its bark wounds and, there- 

 fore, to lessen the jiumber of leaves, which is often the clearest 

 result of pruning, is to decrease the tree's output of bark-renewing 

 substances. Branches that arc useless will, as a rule, be shed 

 spontaneously by the tree. Reasons for pruning may be sound in 

 the particular case of an individual tree, but they do not justify 

 the indiscriminate sacrifice of branches as practiced generally 

 on the Malayan plantations. 



CHICLE DISPLACING RUBBER IN VENEZUELA. 



The British consul at Ciudad Bolivar reports that the balata 

 industry of Venezuela reached its high-water mark in 1913. and 

 quotes the following export statistics as proof of the beginning 

 of a decline in the industry : 



1913. 



1914 



Pounds. Value. 

 .511.944 $557,603 

 339,416 152,073 



In comparison with this decline, which the consul attributes 

 to the decreasing prolitableness of rubber gathering and the devel- 

 opment of other fields of employment for labor, the production 

 and export of chicle, which is sold to the United States for the 

 manufacture of chewing gum, has increased almost five times. 



HEVEA AND HURRICANES IN JAMAICA. 



VV/ERE it not for hurricanes, Jamaica would show up well 

 "' for Hevea culture. There are but few plots of rubber — 

 100 trees here, 60 there, and so on. The product is good and 



Old. J.' 



abundant. In the tapped tree shown, a tree 7',j years old, one 

 pound of first-grade rubber was secured in three months, tap- 



pmg every other day. 

 lost 50 per cent of it 



But the plantation up»n which this grew 

 trees in a recent hurricane. The twisted 



llci 



Trek i)E,-.TKOVED by a Hukricank. Jamaic 



stuiiiii of the Hcvea here shown is eloquent evidence of force of 

 the wind. In a few of the near-by islands protected from wind, 

 and in Central America and the Guianas. for example. Hevea 

 does as well, perhaps better, than in a great many places where it 



is now grown on a large scale. 



BALATA EXPORTS FROM FRENCH GUIANA. 



Statistics for the fiscal year 1914-15 show that the total ex- 

 ports of crude balata from French Guiana during this period 

 amounted to 52,274.50 kilograms (115,004 pounds), as compared 

 with 41,694.50 kilograms (91,728 pounds) exported during the 

 preceding fiscal year. 



BALATA EXPORTS FROM DUTCH GUIANA. 



Exports of balata from Dutch Guiana, from January to Sep- 

 tember, 1915, amounted to 120,050 kilograms (264,110 pounds), 

 as compared with 639,469 kilograms (1,406,832 pounds I exported 

 during the corresponding period of 1914. 



CRUDE RUBBER INDUSTRY IN LIBERIA. 



Frequent mention has been made in The India Klbber 

 World of the crude rubber industry in Liberia. Recent re- 

 ports from the African republic state that the exports of 

 crude rubber, though comparatively small, are steadily in- 

 creasing, thanks to the organized methods of the British 

 association in which is vested the supervision of the rubber 

 royalties throughout the republic. A subsidiary of this asso- 

 ciation now has a plantation of about 1,100 acres containing 

 135,000 Hcvea trees, the majority of w-hich are producing; and 

 the entire plantation will have reached maturity by the tap- 

 ping season of 1916. This plantation was started about six 

 years ago, on strictly modern lines, from seed received from 

 the Botanic Gardens of Ceylon, and has constantly been un- 

 der expert supervision. .All of Liberia's rubber goes to Great 

 Britain. 



