288 



give it strength enough for common commercial purposes. It has 

 the further disadvantage that it deteriorates more rapidly than real 

 rubber. 



"Various extraction processes have been and are still being 

 registered at the Mexican Patent Office, but none of these processes 

 have as yet attained to any degree of perfection, as the known 

 results vary from 10 to 12 per cent., whereas the quantity of gum 

 contained in the shrub is known to be approximately 18 per cent. 

 The quality obtained can better be judged by the price realized 



for the product of the various processes, which varies from 25 to 

 50 cents gold per pound on the New York market. There is still 

 considerable difficulty in removing certain foreign substances and 

 producing a pure rubber free from resin. However, a better 

 finished product is gradually being produced, and I am informed 

 that a sample lot of such excellent quality has been extracted by a 

 new process still in the experimental stage, and not yet patented, 

 that it fetched $1 gold per pound. 



" Numerous companies for the extraction of the gum from the 

 Guayule plant have been formed and many of them are so 

 flourishing that big Corporations are active in securing control of 

 the product. Factories have sprung up all over the north of 

 Mexico, and already represent an outlay of many millions of 

 dollars in buildings and machinery alone. The Continental 

 Rubber Co. of America has large holdings of Guayule lands in 



Mexico. 



$9 



Guayule lands and factories in the country, and the output from 

 its three factories at Torreon, Ocampo, and Saltillo, is said to be 

 in the neighbourhood of 500,000 pounds per month. In addition 

 to this there are, I am informed, twelve other large firms engaged 

 in the trade, not to mention smaller factories. 



"There are various processes of extracting the gum already 

 patented, the best known being the Pablo Bergner, the Garza, the 

 JJelafond, the Lawrence, and the Hunieke processes, but none of 

 them seem to be satisfactory so far. 



" As I before said, the shrub is known to contain as much as 

 16 per cent, of rubber, but none of the present processes seem to 

 turnieh better results than 10 or 12 per cent., «.*.,a ton of the plant 

 produces about 240 pounds of rubber. The cost of extraction is 

 saut to be about 10 cents Mexican a pound, and the price of a ton 

 ot the plant has never yet exceeded $100 Mexican, and is generally 

 less. 1 hen there is the cost of freight to the factory, which is in 

 dedu tT S V6ry hedvy ' and certain other incidental expenses to be 



"The price of Guayule rubber in New York has been as high 

 as « cents gold, and in the summer went as low as 25 cents gold, 

 owing to the action of the Continental Rubber Co. of America, but 

 it has now attained again to 47 cents gold, so that even at the 

 lowest price there is a handsome profit to be reaped in Guayule. 



k, + T * he m ? *v al cultivation of the Guayule plant is still a problem, 

 out it will be some time before the existing supply of Guayule is 

 exhausted from the prairies of Northern Mexico, where it grows 

 in such abundance. I have, in fact, seen it stated, that the value 

 ot the Guayule lands in Mexico is not less than $300,000,000 



