326 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March 1, 1915. 



The Editor's Book Table. 



THE Rl 'Mi i Dl i". OFFICIAL REP0R1 01 FOURTH IN 



ternational Rubbei Congr< . 1 >>ndon, 1914. Editi | ■ I 



1'h.l)., an< danders, London. The Interi R tbber 



and Allied Trades Exhil itii n, I td. [8vo, 516 pages. Price 15*. 6d.] 



THIS volume contains not only the proceeding of the London 

 Congress of 1914 and the papers and discussions of that 

 meeting, but also the principal papers read at the New 

 V. irk Congress in 1912. There is also a comprehensive introduc- 

 tion by Dr. D. Spence. Those who are in the habit of skipping 

 introductions in work- of this character will do well to revise 

 their practice in the present instan.ee. It is a carefully written, 

 well-balanced paper admirably suited as an introduction to the 

 more specialized articles which form the bulk of the work. A 

 revi>eil synoptical table of all the rubber now or recently on 

 the market is added to this introduction. 



While, of course, it is impossible to treat of all the interest- 

 ing papers read at the Congress, the first is one that may by 

 no means be passed over. This is "The Systematic Study of 

 Rubber Production." by R. X. Lyne, Director of Agriculture in 

 u. This is an exposition of and argument for systematic 

 and continued study of the factors which lead to the production 

 of more rubber, better rubber and more economically produced 

 rubber. Only by means of association, whether official or non- 

 official, is it possible for men to go ahead acquiring little by 

 little the knowledge which eliminates waste and loss. The 

 conscientious scientist at the experiment station can make ex- 

 periments I" determine evil practices as well as good, and the 

 truth he learns is not a narrowly held secret 1. 1 put himself 

 ahead of his neighbor, but is disseminated for the benefit of all 

 who are able and willing to learn. Mr. Lyne made a special 

 plea for such co-operation as should lead to standardization of 

 the product. It is hardly necessary to say that a standardization 

 by which a manufacturer, without leaving his desk, could write 

 a three-line order for as many tons of rubber as he wanted 

 and know exactly what he was getting would mean a saving 

 i if expense and a peace of soul that could hardly be over- 

 estimated. 



In the discussion which followed, Dr. Lock made a sugges- 

 tion, which was cordially accepted by Mr. Lyne, that while in 

 every station the bulk of the work should be on systematic 

 lines, rigidly maintained, a little corner should be maintained 

 for what Dickens used to call "Fool's Experiments" — that is, 

 liberty to try something based upon the experimenter's lucky 

 or unlucky guesses. Mostly they will be failures, but the ex- 

 perimenter will be better satisfied and now and then an un- 

 expected result will prove a short cut to valuable knowledge. 



A fact interesting in more ways than one was brought out 

 in the paper on "Rubber Plantations of Angola," by Prof. C. 

 de Mello Giraldes. Angola, it should be said, is a little country 

 about twice as big as Texas — or having four times the area of 

 Great Kritain and Ireland. It is situated on the west coast of 

 Africa, and is a dependency of Portugal. Four years ago there 

 was a considerable trade in wild rubber gathered in the usual 

 wasteful and destructive Native African way. There were no 

 rubber plantations save those of a small and experimental sort. 

 Two years later more than three and a half millions of trees 

 had been planted and the rubber possibilities of this great dis- 

 trict were being vigorously and intelligently developed. While 

 Manihot is grown chiefly, experiments are being made with 

 Hevea, Ficus, Castilloa and Funtumia. The Manihot planter- 

 the collection made early in the morning, and in this way 

 are able to avoid the waste of having the latex dry on the 

 trees. Such small amounts of plantation Manihot from An- 

 as have yet come to market have sold at a price not far 



behind that of the best plantation rubber of the East. Several 

 morals may be drawn. 



\n interesting paper by Andre Cremazy on rubber planting 

 in French Cochin China brought out the fact that more than 

 four million Hevea trees are now in the ground and that the 

 soil and climatic conditions are generally more favorable than 

 lias been supposed. He says, however, that the planters are 

 making their calculations in the serene conviction that the price 

 will never fall below five francs per kilogram. As those of 

 Ceylon and Malaya look forward to an ultimate price little more 

 than half that, somebody is going to be disappointed. 



An exhaustive paper on "Best Methods of Tapping," by 

 W. F. de Puis Maclaren. is a calm presentation of facts which 

 lead to the conclusion that the industry as a whole is injured 

 by the eag< mess of some planters to get every possible ounce 

 of latex which their trees will afford. The author believes that 

 it would be well if a general agreement could be made which 

 would prevent the tapping of trees at an age which restrains 

 their growth. He thinks that two feet girth is little enough. 

 Tappings, he thinks, should not consist of more than two cuts 

 daily and on only one side of the tree. He has an open mind 

 but is not yet inclined to the belief that once-a-week tapping 

 may finally become the rule. Sharp watch should be kept on 

 the laborers to prevent a wasteful and damaging extension of 

 the wounded bark area. 



Mr. Guy Barr, of the National Physical Laboratory of Eng- 

 land, read a paper on fabrics. He begins by showing that the 

 leakage of hydrogen through rubberized fabrics is thirty times 

 as great as through the best oiled silk and that the latter is 

 much lighter than rubber. On the other hand rubber fabrics 

 are more pliable and may be made to possess much greater 

 strength. 



How to secure protection from the sun's actinic rays ; how to 

 prevent moisture from adhering and adding to the balloon's 

 weight, and how to prevent the development of electricity dur- 

 ing rapid passage through the air. are some of the problems 

 which are not likely to occur to the man in the street but which 

 must lie solved. 



Two papers by Prof. Edmond Leplae, of Louvain University, 

 and Director General of Agriculture, have a singular extrinsic 

 interest. The original papers read at the conference were sent 

 to Belgium for revision and lost in the great catastrophe of 

 the war The published papers were written briefly from 

 memory by Prof. Leplae. One is on the cultivation of Funtumia 

 elasticia. The objection based on its branching habit, he said, 

 could be eliminated by close planting and thinning. The yield 

 is less than with Hevea, but this is being improved and the labor 

 costs much less as the tapping is done, not daily, but two or 

 three times a year. The quality of the rubber is very good. 

 The other paper dealt with the problem of soil determination. 

 Chemical analysis, he said, was always available, but it is an ex- 

 pensive method and frequently it happens that it leaves us little 

 better off than we were before, because wdiile we may know 

 that the soil contains certain proportions of various elements, 

 we do not know whether it is what we want for a specific crop. 

 An inexpensive alternative is to put some of the soil from the 

 field in a number of flower-pots and add a carefully calculated 

 amount of manure of different kinds to different pots. The pots 

 are then sown with oats or corn, watched, watered and protected, 

 and the growth, general health, etc., of the various plants care- 

 fully noted. In order that there may not be misleading results 

 fri mi digging from an exceptional spot, several hundred pounds 

 of soil are gathered together from many different parts of the 



