356 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 5 



There were a number of reasons for this action. Anxious to pro- 

 duce rubber as quickly as possible, the project had settled on a policy 

 of leasing only good land, mostly irrigated, and rental values of such 

 land had soared under the impact of war demands for food. Since 

 the project plan called for 10-year leases, it wanted to get the land 

 at rates not too greatly reflecting the war boom, and getting into 

 agreement with landowners on that basis was difficult. Dissatisfac- 

 tion resulted, which found expression in questioning whether 

 guayule was of greater value in the war effort than the food crops 

 which could be grown on the land. 



In the meantime, the synthetic rubber program had developed better 

 than probably anyone had dared hope for, and the winds of the Pacific 

 conflict had begun to veer around in our favor, holding out hope that 

 the Japanese might be driven out of the rubber plantations earlier 

 than previously expected. Altogether, the rubber director felt that 

 the guayule program should be suspended at the existing level, but 

 held in a "stand-by" position in case anything should happen to require 

 resumption later on, and the Secretary naturally was constrained to 

 accept his judgment in the matter. 



Later, the rubber director requested that the program be resumed 

 on a modified scale to produce 20,000 long tons of rubber per year, 

 but by that time Congress had gotten out of the mood. The House 

 Appropriations Committee refused to approve the expansion, taking 

 the stand that the added rubber production could not be realized 

 before the probable end of the war. 



So at this writing the Emergency Rubber Project has simmered 

 down to the growing out and eventual processing of some 32,000 acres 

 of guayule, growing in five districts in California — the Salinas Valley, 

 upper San Joaquin Valley, lower San Joaquin Valley, Sacramento 

 Valley, and southern California. In addition about 120 indicator plots 

 and other experimental plantations are scattered from northern Cali- 

 fornia through the Southwest to the Gulf of Mexico. 



GUAYULE AS A RUBBER PRODUCER 



Now a word about guayule as a rubber producer. As noted previ- 

 ously guayule rubber has been on the market for 40 years or so in com- 

 petition with hevea rubber, though it normally sells for about 20 per- 

 cent less. The reason for this is that the resins in the plant become 

 mixed with the rubber in the milling process, the resin content running 

 from 16 percent to 20 percent or higher, depending on the age and 

 other characteristics of the shrub. While means of deresinating the 

 rubber are well known, the producers have never had any incentive to 

 do so ; the product has found a ready market for purposes where the 



