and Magazine of the Ceylon A grirultural Society. 



375 



are those of the twelvemonth ending March 

 31st of the following year, i e., the Indian ex- 

 ports shown under the heading 1906 are for 

 the twelvemonth ending March 31st, 1907, and 

 are therefore as nearly up to-date as possible. 



All sums have been converted into sterling 

 at the ruling rates of the years in question. 

 The figures for British Guiana include Balata, 

 but those from the P. M.S., Berneo and Sarawak 

 do not include either gutta-percha or jelutong 

 Ceylon figures may include some re shipped 

 rubber from the F.M.S., etc.— India Rubber 

 Journal, Feb. 10. 



RUBBER IN BRAZIL. 



Sir,— In reply to your request of 6th February 

 that I shall reply to points raised in your issues 

 of January 30th and February 5th, I wish first to 

 correct an error on a personal point. It was Mr 

 H. A. Wickham— no relation of mine— who was 

 sent out by the Director of Kew in 1876 and 1877 

 to procure seeds and plants of Heveainthe Para 

 region of Brazil, and who eventually obtained 

 them on the Tapajos river. 



Brazilian Rubber will not cease to be harvested 

 when the price falls to 3s., nor even if it falls to 

 Is. 6d., for this reason — 



Practically all rubber from the Amazon and 

 its innumerable tributaries is paid for 18 months 

 before it is received at Para or Manaos, in the 

 shape of goods, and a small amount of cash given 

 to the tappers. 



The rivers above Manaos, from which most of 

 the rubber comes, are only open to steamer and 

 steam-launch traffic for certain months of the 

 year, when the rivers are high. And this season 

 is uncertain, as I know to my cost, having been 

 stuck on a sand-bank for 26 days at a time when 

 the river was usually full of water. 



Thus, supplies to pay for the rubber now 

 coming to Manaos were bought from July to 

 September, 1906, reached Manaos in October- 

 November of that year, and were sent up the 

 rivers from January to April, when steamers 

 could go up with certainty. The tapping season 

 begins April and May, and continues during the 

 season of low water. The first rubber comes 

 down in November-December, and the bulk of 

 it from February to April. Th as all the rubber 

 coming to Manaos at the present time— and 

 being sold there, hardly any is shipped direct 

 by the producers, at present prices of, say 2s. 9d. 

 per lb. — was paid for to all intents and purposes 

 18 months ago when the price was 5s. 3d. The 

 rates at which goods were advanced say to the 



tappers were based on 5s. 3d. price, and debited 

 to the tappers' accounts at that price. The 

 rubber they are now sending down can only 

 be credited to them at the 2s. 9d. price. What 

 the loss is to the big buying firms can hardly 

 be imagined — Dusenchon Wommensen & Co. 

 are believed to buy 10,000 tons yearly ! 



The average per tapper is about 700 lb. each, 

 though some get as much as one ton, and 

 these tappers take goods usually up to 75 per 

 cent, or 80 per cent, of what they expect to 

 get for their rubber. So, if a man expected to 

 get, say, £140 for his 700 lb. at 5s. 3d., less 

 duty and trade allowance, he would have drawn 

 from £105 to £112 in goods. Now, his ruhb 

 gets to Manaos and he is credited with only 

 £70 at 2s. 9d., less duty and trade allowance. 



Again, the "proprietor" who has charged 

 £105 to £112 for these goods has paid, say, £65 

 to £80 for them, and, mark this, has paid at 

 least \\ per cent, per month interest for his 

 credit. Nearly all "proprietors" are men with- 

 out capital to speak of, and work on credit, and 

 the rate of interest at Manaos is from 1^ to 3 

 per cent, per month. 



Even at \\ per cent, per month the 18 months' 

 simple interest on £65 is £17 10s. So the un- 

 fortunate proprietor gets £70 worth of rubber 

 in return for an outlay of £82 10s., and this in 

 the most favourable instance. If he has paid 

 £80 for goods and debited the tapper with 

 £112, the tapper is £42 to the bad on theyear's 

 working, and the proprietor £31 10s ! And 

 thus on each 700 lb. of rubber, £125 loss 

 per ton. 



Mr. R. J. Booth asks whether it pays to collect 

 at Is. 6d. On this I unhesitatingly contradict 

 flatly the Chairman of the " Brazilian Rubber 

 Trust Ltd." No, it does not, and can not, pay 

 the producer. . 



But the quantity continues to be exported for 

 the reasons I have given above, because it is 

 paid for 18 months ahead. Also there are 

 numbers of wild natives collecting who do not 

 bring their rubber to hand for two or three 

 years after they get it. There are tons and 

 tons of rubber up some of the rivers that can 

 not be shipped because it was tapped some 

 way back from the river bank and all the 

 males in the district are dead. That rubber 

 will come to hand in time, and Chairmen of 

 Trusts will point to its export as proof that it 

 pays to collect it at Is. 6d. 



It did not pay to sell coffee at 27s., but it was 

 sold ; it did not pay to sell Ceylon tea at 3|d., 

 but it was sold, 



