GROWING RUBBER IN CALIFORNIA — PERRY 359 



much doubt that the chemists and engineers will considerably improve 

 this process and they may revolutionize it. 



Nothing has been done about possible byproducts so far, though 

 there are some interesting possibilities. A number of essential oils 

 have been extracted from the plant experimentally and it is rich in 

 resins. The bagasse, or woody pulp which remains after extraction, 

 is sometimes used as fuel in the mills, but it may have higher uses than 

 that. It is too finely ground in the pebble mills to be much good for 

 paper, but a very good-looking hard board has been made experi- 

 mentally by mixing the resinous leaves of the plant with it and sub- 

 jecting it to heat and pressure. No data are so far available regarding 

 its properties or practicability of manufacture, but certainly there 

 will be a vast amount of the raw materials if guayule is ever grown 

 on a commercial scale. 



THE FUTURE OF GUAYULE 



And that brings us to the question of the future of guayule, once the 

 Japanese have been ousted from the rubber plantations of the Orient. 

 Can it compete with the East Indies product? And how about our 

 enormous new synthetic industry ? Only a grade-A prophet would be 

 qualified to speak with any certainty on that subject. There are too 

 many unknown quantities. But here are a few considerations to 

 speculate on. 



1. No one knows yet the cost of producing guayule rubber on a 

 commercial scale. While the Intercontinental Co. grew a few thousand 

 acres of it over a period of several years, both for its own account and 

 under various forms of contracts with farmers, there is not a sufficient 

 volume of accurate records upon which to base a reliable cost figure. 

 One thing is reasonably certain — it cost more than East Indies rubber 

 did before the war, but balanced against that is the virtual certainty 

 that the researchers will radically improve guayule cultural and pro- 

 cessing methods and probably the plant itself. Incidentally, they 

 already have improved the quality of the product, so that the industry 

 has come to prefer guayule rubber turned out by the Salinas mill. 



2. It is uncertain what the plantation rubber situation will be after 

 the war. Since the Japanese have no use for the entire normal output 

 of the plantations they may clear off part of them for other purposes, 

 or at least neglect them and let them revert to jungle. Or they may 

 try to destroy them in a "scorched earth" attempt before they leave. 



In any event, a rubber-starved world is going to require an enor- 

 mously abnormal amount of the substance for a while at least, which 

 of course will tend to hold the price up. There does not seem to be 

 much prospect for any very cheap rubber from abroad, for some time 

 at least. 



