I0 PARA RUBBER. 



The American financial crisis is suggested as a cause of 

 the non-increase of consumption during 1907, when many 

 rubber factories in that country closed down. 



With regard to the anticipated consumption of rubber in 

 1908, Messrs S. Figgis & Co., he. cit., state : " We do not expect 

 much increase of consumption in 1908 in the present state 

 of trade and the over-production of motors everywhere this 

 season." Assuming the above figures to be correct, it will 

 be seen that the rate of annual increase of consumption during 

 recent years has been less than 5 per cent. 



The total quantity of cultivated rubber exported from the 

 East in 1907 was 1,010 tons. The total world's production 

 of cultivated rubber for that year was probably less than 2,000 

 tons, so that the various sources of wild rubber more than met 

 the demand, and this state of affairs has obtained since the 

 establishment of the rubber industry. 



WILD RUBBER. 



Of the world's total production of rubber, tropical America 

 contributes 63 per cent., tropical Africa 34 per cent., and 

 Asia 3 per cent. 



The principal source of wild rubber is Brazil, which, during 

 the year 1905, exported 31,474 tons, 38,000 tons in 1906, and 

 41,500 in 1907, or over 60 per cent, of the total world's supply. 

 This amount was mainly derived from wild Hevea trees, which, 

 as will be shown later, are not readily destroyed by tapping. 

 The Heveas in the Amazon valley have been continuously 

 exploited for more than half a century. 



Spruce writes in Hooker's Journal of Botany, vol. vii., 

 1855, pp. 193-196: "When I ascended the Rio Negro in 1851, 

 I pointed out to the inhabitants the abundance of Seringa trees 

 they possessed in their forests, and tried to induce them to 

 set about extracting the gum ; but they shook their heads, 

 and said it would never answer. At length the demand for 

 india-rubber, especially from the United States, began to exceed 

 the supply ; the price consequently rose rapidly, until early in 

 1854 it reached the extravagant sum of 38 milreis the arroba 

 (2s. gd. per lb.). This woke up the people from their apathy, 

 and the impulse once given, extended so rapidly and widely 



