Gums, Resins, 



4 



[July, 1912. 



tiated. In the Amazon territory and the 

 Congo, improved road and rail consturc- 

 tion, removal of duties and other ad- 

 ministrative measures, have afforded 

 support to the rubber growing industry, 

 in view of the growing competition from 

 plantation rubber. On the other hand, 

 it is admitted that Eastern plantations 

 would pay handsomely at a price of 2s. 

 to 2s. 6d. for their product. According 

 to their own declaration, a pound of 

 pure rubber only costs the sound plant- 

 ation about Is. 6d. The profits of plant- 

 ation cultivation on this scale, upon the 

 above yearly quantity of 22,000 tons, 

 runs in to the hundred millions of marks." 



Finally, the attention of the rubber 

 industry is called to the fact that the 

 stock of rubber at points of export and 

 import (apart from the quantity afloat), 

 is, in the writer's views, enormous. Re- 

 ference is made to receipts at Para from 

 the interior, of 4,000 tons up to February 

 24. There were at time of writing, over 

 1,000 tons of plantation rubber in Lon- 

 don for the approaching auctions while 

 500 tons of Congo and other rubber were 

 listed for the next Antwerp sales. Be- 

 hind these quantities is the Brazilian 

 stock which has not yet come upon the 

 maiket. 



The writer brings up the point that 

 the " bullish " reports of rubber brokers 

 and plantation companies make it 

 appear as if the manufacturing industry 

 could use all these quantities through 

 its unlimited capacity of absorption. 

 In fact, as it is remarked, the industry 

 is made to look as extensible as the 

 raw material it handles ; the chief object 

 of the companies being to keep up the 

 profit of their operations, while manu- 

 facturers may be satisfied with their 

 industrial gains for working the rubber. 



It is urged in conclusion, that this view 

 is based on a mistake, perhaps an inten- 

 tional one. The writer adds : 



" The purchasing power of the public, 

 and thus of the rubber manufacturing 

 Industry, is limited. The times are not 

 bright. Before the automobile becomes 

 generally used by householders, before 

 the bicycle and rubber shoes are adopted 



by poor people, before there is a noiseless 

 London through rubber paving— prices 

 of raw material must have been consi- 

 derably reduced." 



"Therefore the rubber trade, and 

 particularly the rubber goods manufac- 

 turing industry, can themselves help, by 

 skilful buying and cautious operations, 

 to bring down the prices of this product, 

 so indispensable to the industry, of the 

 present day. All prospects would seem, 

 from above explanations, to favour this 

 course." 



RUBBER TREES IN TIMES OF 

 DROUGHT. 



(From the India Rubber World, Vol. 

 XLVI., No. 2., May 1, 1912.) 



An exceedingly interesting demons- 

 tration has been given during the past 

 season in the West Indies and the 

 Guianas, of the conduct of rubber trees 

 under conditions of severe drought. 

 It cannot be claimed that this has been 

 a free demonstration, for, as a matter 

 of fact, it has been in a general way 

 extremely expensive, but it has afforded 

 much valuable information to rubber 

 planters. 



There has been a very severe drought, 

 continuing for many months, through- 

 out all the Southern group of the West 

 Indian Islands, and covering the 

 Northern part of the continent of South 

 America. Some idea of its severity may 

 be gained from the fact that for the 

 first three months of this year the rain- 

 fall in British Guiana was less than 2£ 

 inches, as compared with over 20 inches 

 for the same period last year. In the 

 islands the cacao and banana crops 

 have been practically ruined ; in fact all 

 vegetation seems to have suffered 

 severely — with the one exception of 

 rubber. The rubber trees in Trinidad 

 and the adjacent islands appear to have 

 gone through the drought in practically 

 their normal. conditions, giving fully, or 

 at least approximately, the same yield 



