One hears a good deal about high prices in the Amazonas, 
and careless observers state in opposition to that the cheapness 
of life in the Asiatic Islands and other points of the world. 1 
do not think that a thoughtful person without any interest in 
connection with enterprises and plantations elsewhere in the 
world, would be able to use such an assertion, which is so 
unjust. 
The French engineer, Mr. Paul Le Cointe, who-is an expert 
in the matter, writes the following: 
“For the work to be executed, the number of workmen re- 
quired is much less where the production of those men is high, 
hence to calculate the price of hand work, the individual produc- 
tion is the factor that may become more important than the pay 
to the men who work by the day. 
“In the Far East, the workmen are paid from Fr. 75 to Fr. 
1.25, equal to 14 cents to 23 cents, approximately, including feed- 
ing. In the Amazonas, the pay per day amounts to Frs. 4.75, 
or that is, almost 91 cents for all the work, which is three to four 
times more.” 
Let us examine the cost in Asia and in the Amazonas for 
the different work required by the cultivation of the rubber 
trees. 
According to Mr. Stanley Arden, it is about 38 cents for 
each kilogram of rubber in the plantation (the data that I am 
presenting in connection with this matter is from the book of 
Mr. Le Cointe, entitled “Le Caoutchouc Amazonien et son Con- 
current Asiatique’”). 
Mr. Lamy Torrilhon speaks about the Kuala Lampur Rub- 
ber Company (Malay), which had in 1909, 404,012 rubber trees 
from one to six years old. Calculating the price of cultivation of 
that rubber at Fr. 4 per kilogram or approximately 76 cents, 
Mr. Stanley Arden also calculated that the cost of a hectar of 
plantation before reaching the period of exploitation (the sixth 
year, according to him) was only Fr. 816, or more or less $157, 
including the salaries and establishment of European employees, 
and Mr. M. G. Vernet, of the Pasteur Institute of Nha-Trang, 
calculated Fr. 3,000, about $580. 
Mr. Le Cointe further states that Mr. Stanley Arden in his 
calculations of expense seems to presume the plantation in lands 
not thickly wooded, because he counts for the burning and clear- 
ing of the land, hardly one-third the cost of felling the trees, 
when in the forest it is about the same. Of course, lands not 
properly protected and in the virgin state in the tropical coun- 
tries, are less fertile than those covered with thick forests, fur- 
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