GROWING RUBBER IN CALIFORNIA — PERRY 353 



So the company decided to try domesticating the plant. It em- 

 ployed a young botanist, Dr. W. B. McCallum, and told him to go 

 ahead. 



McCallum started out on the company's property in Mexico. The 

 revolution broke out in 1912, however, and after the contending forces 

 had chased each other across his experimental plots a few times 

 the researcher pulled out in disgust for southern California. He 

 settled first at Valley Center, and here, too, the project has just 

 finished harvesting shrubs planted in 1913-1914. He shortly decided 

 to grow the crop under irrigation, however, and moved to southern 

 Arizona. He finally concluded that this was a mistake, but during 

 the several years he was there McCallum set out experimental plots 

 from northern California through southern Arizona, New Mexico, 

 and southwestern Texas. On the basis of these plots he finally decided 

 that the Salinas Valley of California was the place and in 1925 moved 

 his headquarters there. In 1931 a mill was built and during the next 

 10 years some 4,500 acres of guayule were grown and milled. 



During that period of nearly 30 years, Dr. McCallum had con- 

 siderably improved the productivity of guayule. On its native range 

 the plant exists in almost countless varieties or strains, some very 

 good and others exceedingly poor. By a process of selection he weeded 

 several hundred strains down to a dozen or less of good producers. Of 

 these, four form the mainstay of production, possessing among them 

 certain other attributes required to meet varying conditions of site. 



Pie also worked out methods for propagating the plant and growing 

 it, and other employees of the company designed machines for seeding 

 the nurseries, setting out plants, collecting seed, and harvesting shrub. 

 The so-called Stevenson plan of controlled exports from the Orient 

 had forced the price of rubber up to a high in 1925 of $1.23 per pound, 

 which made of guayule a potential gold mine. 



With the abandonment of the cartel and the coming of the depres- 

 sion rubber prices sank to a disastrous low of 3 cents in 1933, 

 which effectively ranked guayule with the other bursted bubbles of 

 history. Some guayule fields were burned or plowed up by the con- 

 tracting farmers, but those who held on came out fairly well since the 

 price rose again as the market regained equilibrium. The New York 

 price of plantation rubber was 22^ cents at the time of Pearl Harbor. 



THE GOVERNMENT STEPS IN 



With true scientific detachment Dr. McCallum kept plugging along 

 through thick and thin. When the war broke out and the Government 

 began casting about for every possible source of rubber, he had in 

 storage 23,000 pounds of seed from his prize strains. 



