Gums, Resins, 



488 



[June, 1912. 



24 to July 14, and was again a brilliant 

 success. There was a considerable in- 

 crease in the number of British and 

 foreign manufacturers and new sources 

 of supply were shown. Brazil retained 

 her pre-eminence, not alone as a source 

 of supply, but as furnishing a standard 

 of perfection. Great advances have been 

 made in the details connected with tne 

 production of plantation rubber and im- 

 proved machinery was much in evidence. 

 There was a demonstration of a new 

 piocess for the production of synthetic 

 rubber, that may yet find a place in the 

 rubber market. 



Once more the salutary principle was 

 adopted of making the exhibition the 

 opportunity for holding an international 

 conference, the outcome of which may 

 be seen in the admirable souvenir of the 

 proceedings since published. Prizes were 

 given by the India Rubber World, of 

 New York, for the best system of ex- 

 tracting latex from the Castilloa Blas- 

 tica; by the India Rubber Journal of 

 London, for the best sample of plant- 

 ation rubber ; by Grenier's Rubber 

 Neivs, Federated Malay States, for the 

 best sample from Malay States ; by the 

 Association des Planteurs de Caoutchouc, 

 for best sample from Dutch East Indies, 

 and by the West India Committee for 

 best samples of lubber, and balata from 

 the West Indies. 



During the exhibition it became known 

 that an international exhibition on 

 somewhat similar lines was projected 

 for New York, and now that the project 

 has materialized, further progress will 

 doubtless be made in the solution of 

 many problems with which rubber 

 planters and manufacturers have still to 

 deal. Great as is the production in sight, 

 the horizon of demand is ever widening. 

 One hundred and forty years ago, its 

 only known practical use was as an 

 eraser of pencil marks. To-day it 

 ministers to the wants of the infant in 

 his cradle, as well as to the comfort of 

 the aged, while in one form or another 

 it enters with f requency into the count- 

 less demands of civilization. 



Among the exhibits at the Agricul- 

 tural Hall, there was one that promised 



important developments. This was a 

 section of rubber prepared for road- 

 work but not yet fulfiling all the neces- 

 sary conditions that would enable it to 

 compete with the quarry and the foreet 

 for the preparation of road surfaces for 

 heavy traffic. That this difficulty will 

 be overcome, there can be no doubt, 

 and when it has been, any possible doubt 

 of a limitless demand will vanish like 

 a moving mist. Silent streets with the 

 cessation of the turmoil and roar of 

 traffic, would in relief of brain fag to 

 the busy worker, be the most potent 

 factor for health and strength ever 

 offered to the business men and women 

 of great cities, while imperviousness to 

 water would obliterate dust and mud, 

 carry off equally heavy rains or melting 

 snows and save the endless labour on 

 frost upheavals every spring that try 

 the equanimity of dwellers in New York. 



There is a giant in the path whose 

 name is "skid," but Jack the Giant 

 Killer will emerge from some busy inven- 

 tive brain and demolish the skid by a 

 non-slip grip surface that will with- 

 stand wear and tear and secure safety 

 in all weathers in horse or motor. From 

 which side of the Atlantic will he 

 emerge? There's the rub ! 



THE WILD RUBBER TREES OF 

 BRAZIL. 



(Bidletin of the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Intelligence and of Plant- Diseases- 

 3rd Year— Number 2, February 1912.) 

 Dubosc Andre. Le Caoutchouc— Revue 

 generate de chimie pure et appliquee. 

 llle Anne, Tome 14, N. 24, pp. 421-429.— 

 Lamy Torrilhon. Exposition inter- 

 nationale du Caoutchouc a Londres.— 

 Journal d 1 Agriculture tropicale, lie 

 Annee, N. 125, pp. 323-329.-J. Hurbert 

 Res, par Lamy-Torrilhon. Les arbres 

 a Caoutchouc et les reserves de 

 Caoutchouc de cueillette de la region 

 amazonienne.— Journal d 1 Agriculture 

 tropicale, lie Annee, N. 120, pp. 361-363. 

 Paris, Decembre 1911. 

 The great extension of the applica- 

 tions of rubber has led to the exami. 



