November 1, 1914. | 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



73 



The Editor's Book Table. 



RUTHERFORD'S PLANTER'S NOTE BOOK. SIXTH EDITION, 1914. 

 The Times of Ceylon Co., Ltd. Colombo and London. l8vo, Pp. 478.) 



THIS work, first issued (in 1887) for the benefit of Ceylon tea 

 planters, has been expanded to cover all branches oi trop 

 ical agriculture. The fifth edition having been sold in a 

 week, a sixth is now on the market. It is still distinctly a 

 work for Ceylon planters, though tea is now only one of the 

 many crops comprehensively treated. While the information 

 relates particularly to matters peculiar to Ceylon, there is 

 much of interest to planters in all tropic lands and the whole 

 work is full of curious enlightenment lor the general reader. 

 It is intended as a vadc me cum for the Ceylon planter, treat- 

 ing of all the operations of the plantation from jungle deal- 

 ing to bookkeeping and from digging out cocoanut beetles 

 to capturing wild elephants. An endless variety of mathe- 

 matical tables is presented to save lime and give accuracy to 

 the planter's estimau s. 



Of course, the most radical difference between planting in 

 Ceylon and those operations in which most of the readers of 

 this publication are interested is that dealing with the labor 

 problem. It is assumed that every laborer is a "cooly," the 

 number of coolies required is so and so, and the amount of 

 work which can be done is so much "per cooly." The legal 

 regulations dealing with the relation of planters and laborers 

 are given in full and constitute interesting reading. The con- 

 tract, if verbal, is assumed to be for a month only. Longer 

 agreements must be in writing and acknowledged before a 

 magistrate. The laborer may be employed during the hours 

 usual to his occupation and when sent on a journey may not 

 be required to walk more than twenty-five miles a day or 

 carry a load of more than forty pounds. Most people will 

 agree that further exaction on the part of the employer would 

 seem a trifle oppressive. 



In case of the sale of the estate to another person the con- 

 tract is binding on the new owner, but the laborer may quit, 

 on giving due notice. Refusal to work, on the part of the 

 laborer, or to pay wages promptly, on the part of the em- 

 ployer, are alike punishable by imprisonment, as is also the 

 enticing of servants from one employer by another. During 

 temporary illness laborers receive food and medical care at 

 the expense of the employer, who, however, is not bound to 

 pay wages during such illness. Laborers' wages are a first 

 charge upon estates. These wages seem generally to be 144 

 rupees, or about $46 a year. 



In addition to tea and rubber, there are complete chapters 

 •or comprehensive articles on cocoanuts, cocoa, cardamons, 

 tobacco, sugar, jute, manila, hemp, sisal, ramie, san, hemp, bow- 

 string hemp and silk cotton. The rubber section runs through 

 59 pages and includes estimates of opening and maintaining 

 plantations; tables of cost and probable production during a 

 series of years; distances and numbers of trees in plantations 

 and plants in nurseries. The information about rubber seeds 

 as a by-product is full of interest. The kernels amount to 

 about SO per cent, of total weight and these kernels yield 42 

 per cent, of oil similar to linseed oil, the residue furnishing 

 a meal valuable as cattle feed. The seeds are collected by 

 children at a price of a little over one cent a thousand, Ameri- 

 can money, and pay a moderate profit when shipped to 

 Europe. 



Methods of tapping, of coagulation, of packing and many 

 other matters are discussed by experts in the light of the 

 most recent experience. The regulations to prevent rubber 

 theft read curiously like the extra-legal edicts of the Ku Klux 

 Klan soon after the war. to stop the brisk midnight mer- 



chandizing of cotton, which had become a business custom in 



many localities of the South. The penalties, however, are 



not the same. 



IN II n KS" COMMERCIAL REGISTER OF THE UNITED STATES 

 for Buyers ;uid Sellers. New York, 1914. S. E. Hendricks Co. 

 ICloih, quarto, 1 ,596 i . Price 10 dollars.] 



A BSOl I I E accuracy in classification is the chief merit of 

 any directory; but to accomplish this object requires an 

 inuuen.se amount of research and verification. This is particu- 

 larly the case in a work intended to be used for constant refer- 

 ence, in which every name has to be checked over to insure cor- 

 rectness. 



All these points have been kept in view in the compilation of 

 the twentj third annual edition of the above work, which has 

 just been issued, and is well up to the mark of its predecessors. 

 In fact, it includes many new features; it gives the names and 

 addresses of the manufacturers of machinery and appliances re- 

 quired in the treatment of crude materials, including rubber, in 

 appropriate classifications and sub-classifications. The descrip- 

 tions of the various products are sufficiently detailed to give the 

 prospective buyer just the information he is looking for. The 

 principal houses in the rubber industry are also listed. 



Numbering about 350,000 names in upwards of 45,000 business 

 classifications, it will be readily understood why the index alone 

 takes up 138 pages. The work, in its current issue, has fully 

 maintained its reputation for accuracy and completeness. 



THE FIRST OF THE 1915 CALENDARS. 



The R. J. Caldwell Co., of 15 Park Row, New York, has 

 stolen a march on all its rivals and been the first to issue a 

 calendar for the year 1915. This company, which deals in tire 

 fabrics — Sea Island, Egyptian and Peeler — handles the products 

 of the Connecticut Mills Co., Inc., of Danielson, Connecticut, and 

 the Canadian Connecticut Cotton Mills Co., Ltd., of Sherbrooke, 

 Quebec, which have a combined capacity of 8,000,000 pounds ; 

 therefore it is quite appropriate that the 33 x 16 inch panel to 

 which the calendar section is attached should contain reproduc- 

 tions of photographs of these two mills, while Old Father Time 

 is pictured as "Still Going Strong," employing tires constructed 

 of the fabrics of these mills to lend speed to his progress. 



A NEW MILLER BOOKLET. 



An interesting catalogue of information on accessories and 

 illustrated description of repair materials has been published by 

 the Miller Rubber Company, of Akron, under the title, "Modern 

 Accessories for Permanent Tire Repairs." This attractive book- 

 let covers all articles used in connection with the care and repair 

 of tires. Illustrations and descriptive matter are clear and con- 

 cise, and the booklet should afford valuable assistance in the 

 selection and application of the right materials for any phase 

 of tire repairing. 



THE AMERICAN RUBBER CO.'S HANDSOME BOOK. 



The American Rubber Co., of Boston, whose big factory in 

 Cambridgeport, just across the Charles river from Boston, is a 

 very conspicuous feature of t,he local landscape, has just issued a 

 particularly well printed and handsome book of interior views 

 showing the administrative offices and the various departments 

 of the factory devoted to the manufacture of rubber garments. 

 There are over twenty of these interior views (not to mention 

 a few exteriors). They show the crude rubber, the sheets in the 

 drying room, the rubber going through the calenders, the spread- 

 ing and cutting rooms, the big workshops where the stitching 

 is done, and finally, the garments hanging on racks in the vul- 

 canizing rooms. This factory, by the way. has a capacity of over 

 3,000 garments a day. 



