Gums, Resins, 



[June 1908. 



New York is not, like some other 

 rubber markets, an international clearing 

 house for rubber; for the most pare 

 whatever supplies come into this port go 

 promptly into the hands of home manu- 

 facturers. The recent decline in prices 

 does not therefore depend alone upon 

 conditions on this side of the Atlantic 

 any more than upon conditions on the 

 other side, or iu regions less discussed in 

 this connection. It will be seen from 

 the same table that prices have fluctu- 

 ated, without regard to the volume of 

 rubber imports (practically the volume 

 of rubber consumption in) into the 

 United States. 



But this article is not intended as an 

 apology for, or a defence of, New York, 

 and still less as an explanation of the 

 influences that cause rubber to sell now 

 higher and now lower. The immediate 

 pressing question in Ceylon and other 

 planting regions is : At what point of 

 decline will the Amazon regions cease to 

 export rubber, and thereby leave the 

 prospective planting interest in com- 

 mand of the field ? 



Our opinion is that the Amazon river 

 will carry rubber to market for very 

 many years after every rubber planter 

 now alive has been gathered to his 

 fathers. Nobody knows what it costs to 

 produce Hevea rubber in South America, 

 unless it be an exceptional owner of a 

 seringal here and there who troubles 

 himself to keep books. And the Brazilian 

 who admits to himself that the sun rises 

 or sets outside his country, or that good 

 rubber can be produced elsewhere, is no 

 patriot. Do not the cotton planters of 

 the United States rest under the same 

 delusion regarding their own special 

 product ? What is the use, they would 

 say, of considering the possibility of 

 competition, and planning how to meet 

 it? 



There are rubber manufacturers in the 

 United States to*day who remember 

 when fine "Para "cost them only 25 

 cents (a shilling) a, pound, aud there 

 never was any scarcity of raw material. 

 Of course, with the growth of demand 

 prices went up. which was natural, and 

 the consumer did not complain. But it 

 is impossible to fix a limit of price below 

 which the Brazilian and their neighbours 

 Will not produce rubber. Whatever was 

 true at an earlier date, most of the 

 seringueiros or to-day have got to 

 produce rubber, or starve. Their 

 country as yet affords no other export 

 staple— no other means of subsistence. 

 The Ceylon planters whose enterprise 

 fails can go " home," or somewhere else. 

 But the Amazon rubber gatherer must 

 gather rubber or die, and if the high 



prices of recent years which have amazed 

 him and led him into extravagances, and 

 to feel that Amazonia had "the world 

 in a sling" should disappear permanent- 

 ly, he would still gather rubber and 

 manage to sustain life on the proceeds. 



This is not written to discourage the 

 rubber planter. The world will continue 

 to use rubber more and more. The 

 world as a whole is only on the threshold 

 of using rubber as a general proposition. 

 But it is idle as yet for a few book- 

 keepers to try to figure out what forest 

 rubber "costs" — whether on the Amazon 

 or on the Congo — and at what minimum 

 of cost it will cease to be marketed. 

 There are shrewd business men on the 

 Amazon as elsewhere, only they have 

 not yet beeu forced to apply system to 

 their accounting. When they are, the 

 European shareholders in companies in 

 the Far Bast must see to it that their 

 directors are not worsted in the com- 

 petition. Have Ave not seen millions of 

 European capital invested in exploiting 

 forest rubber in South America, and 

 almost invariably at a loss? But the 

 rubber output of the Amazon has gone 

 on increasing year after year, and it is 

 incredible that the people who have pro- 

 duced this great volume of exports have 

 done so at a steady loss. So far the 

 Brazilians as business men have not 

 suffered by comparison with any com- 

 petitors. 



The real question is not,— "At what 

 low figures will Brazil stop produc- 

 ing rubber?" but "How cheaply can 

 anybody else supply equally good 

 rubber?" — The India Rubber World, 

 Vol. XXXVII, No. 1, April 1, 1908. 



CEARA Oil MANICOBA RUBBER.* 



instructions fou its culture and . 

 Extraction of Rubber. 



Owing to its easy acclimatisation and 

 small requirements with respect to soil, 

 Manicoba will become a product of great 

 importance, coming next to that of coffee, 

 to-day so depreciated in its market value. 



It requires, however, constant care 

 and work. 



Certain plants do not consititute what 

 might be looked upon as capital,— they 

 ripen in a few months and then disap- 

 pear; others like coffee, cocoa; and the 

 Mauicoba represent a real income owing 

 to their being long lived. 



It is therefore on account of its great 

 interest that we endeavour to make 



* Translated from Boletin ; Sec. de Agriculture, 

 &c, Bahia, II, 2nd Aug. 1903, We are indebted io£ 

 the translation to Mr. D, A. Wetheral.— Sditof, 



