682 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September 1, 1915. 



other mechanical and surgical rubber goods, the whole in- 

 dustry would be at a dead standstill. 



THE GERMAN SYSTEM. 



As an illustration of the thoroughness with which the Germans 

 conduct tlu-ir military operations, a paragraph in a letter re- 

 cently written from northern France is interesting. The writer 

 says : 



"After every battle in which the Germans have been victorious 

 the field is literally scoured, and all the junk is transported to 

 headquarters. Scores of ripped and torn auto tires are collected 

 and sent to an establishment where the rubber can be utilized in 

 the making of new tubes." 



GERMANY SAVING EVERY SCRAP OF RUBBER WASTE. 



The saving of every possible scrap of waste rubber has now 

 become such an important matter in Germany that not only the 

 imperial government but state and municipal authorities have 

 taken the matter up; and the Red Cross organization particularly 

 is instructing the public in regard to collecting old rubber ar- 

 ticles so that nothing shall be missed. The newspapers even go 

 to the i \'< nt oi giving general instructions as to how waste rub- 

 ber articles shall he sorted before being turned over to the fac- 

 s. that the dcl.n lassification may be 



avoided. 



On June 1. Austro-Hungarian rubber manufacturers increased 

 their prices for rubber goods from SO to 100 per cent. 



SOME RUBBER PLANTING NOTES. 



RUBBER FAMINE IN DENMARK AND IN SWEDEN. 



For a long time Danish rubber imports have been restricted 

 by iire.it Britain lesl some of these imports find their way to 

 Germany, in spite of the Danish embargo on rubber exports. 

 This resulted in a rubber famine in Denmark. Now that Danish 

 rubber manufacturers have assured England that they would not 

 allow the Danish embargo to be violated, the British government 

 is allowing Denmark sufficient rubber for domestic needs. 

 Sweden lias refused to place an absolute embargo on rubber ex- 

 iinl great Britain's restrictions on rubber shipments to that 

 country are therefore maintained, with the result that the rubber 

 tage is becoming acute in Sweden. 



The cargo of the Swedish steamer "Fridland," recently seized 

 by the British on the way from Xew York to Copenhagen. Den- 

 mark, included 56 tons of rubber, marked on the cases and en- 

 tered in the bill of lading as "gum." 



The scarcity of rubber in Norway is said to have led to the 



withdrawal from service of many public as well as private auto- 



les and to the opening of negotiations by the Foreign Office 



and the Royal Automobile Club with the British government for 



the purchase in London of limited quantities of rubber. 



IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTATION HEVEA. 



The Hevea Brasiliensis tree shows much variability in the 

 rubber plantations of Malaya and the officials of the Botanic Gar- 

 dens. Singapore, are attempting to mark the best among the old 

 trees that they maj serve as parents for improved stock. The 

 work of selection will cover mam years It commences with 

 the comparison of tree with tree as judged by the yield of latex. 



PLANTATION RUBBER. 

 It is .liable that this year's exports of plantation rub- 



ber will exceed the totals of all previous years. For the first 

 three months of 1915 statistics show that crude rubber exports 

 from Malaya and Ceylon to Great Britain, in spite of the war 

 and the consequent shortage of shipping facilities, exceeded 

 those of the corresponding period of 1914 by 7.940 tons. 



RUBBER EXPORTS FROM BRITISH MALAYA. 



""THE London "Financier" gives the following table showing 

 the quantity and value of exports of rubber from Malaya 

 during the past nine years : 



1MIO 



1907. 

 190S. 

 1909. 

 1910. 



Exports. Average Price 



Ions. per Pound. Total Value. 



430 5/0 i240,800 



885 4/6 446,040 



1,629 4/0 729,892 



3,340 7/0 2,618,560 



6,504 6/0 4,370,688 



1911 11,500 



1912 21,305 



1913 35,352 



1914 46,047 



( omparativelj little has been added in the last two years to 

 the area under rubber in British Malaya. Three years hence 

 all the trees on the plantations should be in bearing, but although 

 this will mean a great increase in supply, little fear of over- 

 production is felt among Malayan planters, who believe that 

 rubber will always be in sufficient demand to command prices 

 affording a reasonable margin of profit. 



PRODUCTION OF OLD HEVEA TREE. 



Bulletin No. 13, Department of Agriculture, Ceylon, gives par- 

 ticulars of the tapping of an old Hcvea tree at Heneratgoda. It 

 is one of the original seedlings sent from Kew and planted in 

 1877. It stands close to a hard road and with two other trees 

 within fifteen feet of it. In less than five years it yielded nearly 

 400 pounds of rubber. 



A tapping test was begun December 5, 1908, and continued 



daily on a full herring-bone system of three V's, the cuts being 



one foot apart and the lowest cut one foot from the ground. 



The fourth section was completed January 17, 1911. The yields 



from these four sections were as follows: 



Days Total rubber, 



tapped. Lb. Oz. 



Section 1 153 43 9 



Section 2 1S5 43 7 



n 3 137 34 13 



Section 4 125 50 3 



Total 600 172 



Tapping on the renewed bark of section 1, which was two 



and four months old April 1, 1911, yielded 100 pounds 10 



ounces of rubber in 209 days of tapping. 



Sections 2 ami 4 and Section 3 were tapped on renewed bark 



in two different tests in 1912. The tree was tapped, with short 



intervals, over a period of four years and nine months, with the 



following total yield : 



Lb. Oi. 



Original bark 172 



Renewed bark, section 1, completely tapped 100 



Renewed bark, sections 2 and 4, partly tapped 22 9 



Renewed bark, section 3, completely tapped 97 4 



Total 392 7 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES RUBBER EXPORTS. 



An official cablegram received from Kuala Lumpur an- 

 nounces that the export of plantation rubber from the Feder- 

 ated Malay States during the month of July amounted to 

 3,687 tons, as compared with 3,403 tons in June and 2,971 

 ions in the corresponding month last year. 



The following is a comparative table showing the export 

 for three years: 



1913. 1914. 1915. 



January tons 2,131 2,542 3,473 



February 1,757 



March 1,737 



April 1,626 



May 1,225 



lun 



July 



!,005 

 1,781 



2,364 3,411 



2,418 3,418 



2,151 2,777 



2,069 2,708 



2,306 3,403 



Total 12,262 



2,971 

 16,821 



3.687 

 2J.877 



