THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Sei'tember 1, 1919. 



older plantations, it would without doubt adversely alToct the 

 younger ones. 



EXTRACTING OIL FROM HEVEA SEEDS. 



Planters of HcTca have been led to believe that they could 

 make large profits by extracting oil from the seeds, but e.xperi- 

 m.ents, tlic results of which were published in the "Bulletin Eco- 

 iiomiqitc dc I'lndo-Chinc," show the expense of collecting the 

 seeds and extracting the oil to be so great that the net returns 

 are not encouraging. The percentage of oil in the seeds was 

 found to be 30 instead of 40 as anticipated, and the number of 

 seeds produced by each tree was much less than the estimates. 

 It seems probable that better results may be expected from 

 improved methods of gathering and treating the seeds, as the 

 oil content is considerable. 



WAX-COATED COAGULATING TRAYS. 



Wooden trays made waterproof by being coated with a 

 special composition of wax, and intended to take the place of the 

 enamelled dishes used in coagulating rubber latex have been 

 invented by Gordon Skene in Ceylon. The tray is as large as 

 four of the ordinary dishes. 



Of the EHt<horbiaceac there are half a dozen varieties, only 

 two of which, however, have a rubber value. Euphorbia cuneata, 

 in Somali "Da-ri-nder,'' gives a latex containing 17.7 per cent 

 caoutchouc and 81.80 per cent, resin; the latter is hard, fragile, 

 and neuter. The caoutchouc has little nerve, cannot stand a tem- 

 perature above SO degrees C, but, it is believed, can be utilized 

 in the rubber industry. Euphorbia Tiracalli, in Somali "Dauno," 

 flourishes in arid places ; it could be planted in the many desert 

 portions of the land. It gives an abundant latex which yields 

 12.2 per cent caoutchouc and 87 per cent resin. This rubber in 

 Senator Pirelli's opinion can be utilized in the rubber industry, 

 and can be substituted for jelutong. 



The Manihot Glaziovii, imported from Brazil, where it yields 

 the Ceara rubber, flourishes admirably in East Africa. In Soma- 

 liland it is the only plant that is cultivated on the rubber plan- 

 tations. The field is open for Italian enterprise to develop the 

 production of both the cultivated and the wild forms of 

 caoutchouc. 



Meanwhile, at the Versailles conference, Italy is pleading to 

 have her Eritrea and Somaliland colonies joined by the conces- 

 sion to her of British Somaliland and the intervening strip of 

 coast. This would cut off Abyssinia effectually from the sea. 



RUBBER ACREAGE IN INDIA. 



The following was the acreage of rubber cultivation in 

 India at the end of 1917: South India, 47,631 acres, 37,510 in lap- 

 ping. Burma, 63,857 acres, 27,172 in tapping. Assam, 3,064 acres 

 Ficus clastica. 



WET ROT IN HEVEA ROOTS. 



Fom^s pscudo-fcrrcus is the cause of "wet rot" in the roots 

 of the Para rubber tree, according to the Department of Agri- 

 culture of the Federated Malay States, Bulletin 28. Three species 

 have now been found that can live parasitically on Hevca : fomes 

 Hgnosiis, the white root fungus; fomes lamasens-is, the brown 

 root disease, and fomes pseudo-ferreus. 



INDIA RUBBER IN ITALIAN SOMALILAND. 



FROM THE INVESTIGATIONS of botanists and other scientific 

 travelers and from many practical agricultural experiments, 

 it has been demonstrated that in Italian Somaliland many im- 

 portant rubber-yielding plants are to be found growing wild, and 

 also that tlie surroundings, if properly chosen, are favorable for 

 the culture of Manihot Glaziovii. Though experiments in culti- 

 vation have met with varying success, a colonial farmer, P. 

 Guelfi-Camajani, asserts in the "Tribuna Coloniale," Rome, that 

 they have taught both scientific men and practical farmers how 

 to surmount the obstacles in their way and strong efforts to 

 establish rubber culture would already have been made had it not 

 been for the war. 



Various members of the Apocinaceae family flourish in Soma- 

 liland ; those found so far are : Landolphia Florida, Landolphia 

 petersiana, Adenium co'etanum and Hunleria Africatia. Lan- 

 dolphia Florida, in Somali "Mabargo," is found all over Africa; in 

 Somaliland it grows in moist places and gives plenty of latex. 

 The analyses of the plant latices were all made in the Pirelli 

 laboratories, the report stating that the Somali Landolphia Flo- 

 rida yielded 18.8 per cent caoutchouc and 79.2 per cent resin, the 

 rubber being of light color and possessing nerve, the resin havmg 

 a low fusion point. The La-ndolphia petersian<i has its home in 

 East Africa. The London Imperial Institute's analysis of that 

 grown in British East Africa gave 82.5 and 80.7 per cent 

 caoutchouc, with 13.4 and 12.6 per cent resin ; the quality is 

 close to that of the Hevea Para. The Hunteria Africana seems 

 to have some rubber qualities, while the analysis of the latex of 

 Adenium coetamim by the Pirellis gave 85 per cent resin and IS 

 per cent of a substance like gutta percha. 



RUBBER SOURCES AND RECONSTRUCTION 

 POLICIES. 



THE LISTING OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL of raw material among 

 the reconstruction policies of European nations again draws 

 attention to the complete dependence of American rubber in- 

 dustry upon importation of crude rubbers. The situation is con- 

 cisely set forth in the "Commerce Reports" of August 1, 1919, by 

 the following statistics compiled by a representative of an 

 American company. 



While it is intimated that the reconstruction policies being 

 formulated abroad will not be without effect on America's sup- 

 ply of crude rubber, it hardly seems credible, in the face of the 

 present great over-production and the anxiety of thousands of 

 plantation shareholders, that any government will find it either 

 necessary or wise to hamper the normal dealings of rubber 

 planters with their best customers in the United States. 



The facts and statistics presented are in part as follows : 



During 1917 Far Eastern plantations produced about 79.S per 

 cent of the world's supply of crude rubber ; the British colonies 

 turned out approximately 80 per cent of this, or 63 per cent of 

 the total production of the world. 



The only place on American soil where conditions have been 

 found favorable to rubber growing is the insignificant total of the 

 Philippine Islands, where 147 tons was produced in Mindanao 

 in 1917, or sufficient to last one of the large American manufac- 

 turers about one day. Owing to an insufficient supply of good 

 cheap labor (our Government prohibits the importation of 

 Chinese coolies) and government restriction limiting to 2,500 

 acres the amount of land which corporations can own, the in- 

 vestment of American capital has been restricted and dis- 

 couraged. 



OWNERSHIP OF HTIBBER PLANTATIONS IN THE FAR EAST. 



It is notable that 76 per cent of planted acreage of plantation 

 rubber is owned by British capital and 2.8 per cent by American 

 capital, according to best available authorities, as follows: 



Pianlation Interests. .\creage. Per Cent. 



British 1,513,576 7S.9 



Dutch 260,000 13.0 



French and Belgian 10'),000 5.0 



American 55,000 2.8 



Ccrman 3,<!00 .2 



.All other 63.577 3.1 



Total 1.995,553 100.0 



The 55,000 acres planted and controlled by American capital 

 comprise the estate of the United States Rubber Plantations, 

 Inc.. in Sumatra, American interests have also recently acquired 

 40,000 acres of undeveloped land in Sumatra. The Goodyear 



