1918.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



121 



ness brought by the war. The same is true of Italy, 

 Japan and to a smaller extent of the South American 

 countries. 



International Free Trade may be "sound," but at 

 present it is not very loud. 



CRUDE RUBBER A "KEY MATERIAL." 



ttly^EY INDUSTRIES" are given much attention in 

 .^V Great Britain at present. For example, dye 

 manufacture is the key industry to textile and paper pro- 

 duction. Germany once possessed this key, but for va- 

 rious reasons was unable to use it from 1914 up to the 

 present time. Pass-keys were therefore made in both 

 Great Britain and the United States and the industries 

 unlocked for all time. 



Exhibitions of "Key Materials" are now on in various 

 great English centers. Of the many materials shown, 

 that of paramount interest is crude rubber. As matters 

 stand, crude rubber actually is represented by several 

 keys. Great Britain of course holds the biggest, the 

 Dutch East Indies and Brazil each hold big ones, while 

 those of lesser size dangle from the fingers of French 

 Indo-China, the Central American countries, and a very 

 tiny one from the Philippines. 



Nor are we without rubber key materials here in the 

 United States. Reclaimed rubber is one. Neither should 

 we forget that the great guayule project goes on apace 

 and will one day be a fairly sizable key. Take it all in 

 all the crude rubber keys are in good hands and if any 

 holders, for good and sufficient reasons, lock their doors, 

 others will open the wider. 



Of all that list just one, Ficus elastica, has actually- 

 served as a commercial source of rubber. To be sure, 

 nearly all the species of Ficus and Euphorbia bear latex, 

 but few have furnished rubber which has been sold in 

 the markets of the world. 



The other four species belong to families which dec 

 not ordinarily produce latex at all, and no scientific 

 authority includes either of them among rubber-bearing 

 plants. All of which simply proves that Mr. Da>- knew 

 more about rubber in the factory than in the tree. 



Such a mistake is not at all surprising to one who 

 reviews the assertions which have been made at different 

 times by men of high rank as botanists. The Kickxia 

 of Africa was described by the authorities of Kew Gar- 

 dens in England from the leaves of one species and the 

 flowers of another. An English botanist, sent to Central 

 America to gather plants of CastiUoa elastica for experi- 

 mental cultivation in Ceylon, got a plant which may have 

 been a species of Perchea or a species of CastiUoa, but 

 which certain was not CastiUoa elastica. 



Nor has the day of mistaken and careless naming gone 

 by. Quite recently eminent authors have spoken of the 

 Caucho rubber of South America as being the product 

 of the CastiUoa elastica. Yet it was long ago described in 

 detail by Warburg as being the product of a very dif- 

 ferent tree, the Ca-stiUoa Ulci. 



THE BAFFLING BOTANY OF RUBBER. 



AT the Centennial Exposition of 1876. Austin G. Day, 

 one of the most enterprising and successful of 

 rubber men, showed a collection of "nibber-producing 

 plants." The collection consisted of sixteen varieties, 

 with the following names : 



Ficus Brasiliensis Brazil 



Ficus liicidus Brazil 



Ficus macro phylla Australia 



Ficus Australis Australia 



Ficus elastica East Indies 



Ficus rigida East Indies 



Ficus religiosa Palestine 



Euphorbia inoiislrosa Cuba 



Euphorbia triangularis South Africa 



Euphorbia Mackaii Java 



Euphorbia splcndens Alexico 



Euphorbia punicia Mexico 



Moiistera dcliciosa Brazil 



Galipia odoratissima Brazil 



(more correctly called Cusparia) 



Aralia Cookii Brazil 



Pcrcskia i'rauditlnra Mexico 



At the Industrial Conference December 3rd to 

 6th there will assemble at Atlantic City the most repre- 

 sentative body of business men that the world has yet 

 seen. Called together by the Chamber of Commerce of 

 the United States will be delegates from 300 groups of 

 interests. The discussions will embrace the many and 

 varied problems of reconstruction, as for example, can- 

 cellation of contracts, continuation of government con- 

 trol, labor, conservation, prices, credit and similar sub- 

 jects. In all of these questions the rubber trade has a 

 very live interest, and from the conclusions reached is 

 sure to derive much benefit. 



German property in the United States and its 

 Territories has heen taken over and sold by the Alien 

 Property Custodian. The money derived from the sales 

 runs into hundreds of millions of dollars. Most of it is 

 German money. If, however, an American can prove 

 that any portion of it is his, he has the privilege of enter- 

 ing a claim for it within six months of the close of the 

 war. It is possible also that war damages may also be 

 settled from this fund, as part of the property sold once 

 belonged to the sometime Imperial German Government- 



Twenty big cars stripped of their tires by thiex'es 

 in twenty days is the record of a Western cit\-. As it is 

 almost impossible to identify tires once stolen, owners 

 are adopting the plan of branding both tires and tubes 

 with their initials. This is of great assistance to the 

 police in recovering stolen tires. Branding the thieves 

 would be better. 



