August, 1910.] 



103 



Saps and Exudations. 



Prom a financial or economic point of 

 view a better method of calculating the 

 yield is by the acre. A? the planting 

 distance varies so much, the average per 

 tree is no clear indication of the pro- 

 ducing capacity of an estate. It is now 

 generally assumed that an acre of Para 

 rubber, when it comes first into bearing 

 at the age of five or six years, will yield 

 100 lb. of rubber per annum ; in the 

 tenth year three or four times this 

 amount at least may be expected. Be- 

 yond this there is little data available. 



The producing power, for example, of 

 a twenty-year-old plantation, which has 

 been regularly tapped, can be merely 

 guesswork at the present time. The 

 future may have unforeseen drawbacks 

 in store, or it may furnish still more 

 agreeable surprises. 



The Quality of Plantation Rubber. 



The rivalry which is now commencing 

 between plantation Para rubber and the 

 wild product of Brazil will be keenly felt 

 in the near future. The latter has been 

 the standard caoutchouc for a long 

 period, and buyers 3an rely on its uni- 

 form, excellent qualities. Manufac- 

 turers have their machinery especially 

 adapted for its manipulation. Its 

 requirements as regards vulcanisation 

 are known exactly. It is the specified 

 brand to be employed in a number of 

 Government and other contracts. Little 

 wonder then that plantation rubber 

 should have met with some little opposi- 

 tion at the outset. The surprise rather 

 is that it has come to the front so 

 quickly. This early success is largely no 

 doubt to be attributed to the general 

 shortage in the raw rubber supply, but 

 is partly also due to the great purity 

 of the plantation article. It can be used 

 directly for making rubber solution and 

 is largely bought up for this purpose. 

 Wild Para has first to undergo the 

 laborious process of cleaning. 



If plantation rubber had appeared in 

 quantity ten or fifteen years ago, it 

 would most likely have had a harder 

 uphill fight to find a good market. 

 The supply of Brazilian Para relative to 

 the world's demand was then much 

 greater. Manufacturers would have 

 been chary about risking their money 

 and reputation on an untried raw mate- 

 rial. For the planting community, then, 

 it would seem that cultivated rubber 

 has arisen at a most opportune time. 

 Manufacturers are obliged to turn their 

 attention to it, and by doing so must 

 hasten on improvements in its prepar- 

 ation, so that ultimately it will take a 

 place iu the rubber market second to 

 none. 



Though the best grades of plantation 

 rubber have almost invariably received 

 a higher price per pound than fine Bra- 

 zilian Para, yet the buyer is in reality 

 purchasing the cultivated caoutchouc 

 at a rather cheaper rate, for the wild 

 rubber suffers a loss of ten to fifteen 

 per cent, of its weight in washing, where- 

 as the plantation product loses hardly 

 one per cent. Rubber planters will not 

 be content to rest till their article 

 fetches a relatively higher price than 

 fine Para. 



The influences above mentioned no 

 doubt keep the value of plantation rub- 

 ber intrinsically rather lower than that 

 of the Brazilian export ; but at the same 

 time there is a general impression that 

 the former lacks to some extent the 

 strength and elasticity of the latter. 

 This is at present a much disputed point. 

 But taking into account both the gen- 

 eral bias of manufacturers for the well- 

 tried wild article and also the variety 

 in shape and quality of the cultivated 

 rubber now on the market, there would 

 seem to be little ground for regarding 

 the best grades of plantation as inferior 

 to fine hard Para. A fair amount of 

 badly prepared and "tacky" rubber from 

 the East has reached Mincing Lane from 

 time to time, and this must tend to 

 damage the reputation of plantation 

 Para as a whole. It may be claimed, 

 however, that previous to the arrival 

 of cultivated Hevea rubber from the 

 East, no raw caoutchouc so free from 

 impurity and moisture and so pale in 

 colour had ever been put on the market. 



The youthfulness of the trees from 

 which the majority of plantation rubber 

 is at present obtained has been blamed 

 for this supposed lack of strength. The 

 tapping of cultivated Heveas is begun 

 when their stems, at a height of three 

 feet from the ground, have attained a 

 girth of about twenty inches. They 

 reach this size under favourable condi- 

 tions of growth in five or six years from 

 the time of planting. The rubber in 

 the forests of Amazon is collected from 

 much older trees. Then it is an undoubt- 

 ed fact that rubber from quite young 

 trees or twigs of Hevea is very different 

 iu elasticity. There has consequently 

 been much opinion expressed to the 

 effect that the latex takes some time 

 to mature, and so naturally it is argued 

 that the rubber from old trees must be 

 better than from young ones. But the 

 botanical fact is lost sight of that new 

 Iaticiferous elements are continually 

 being added by the cambium to the bast, 

 no matter what age the tree may be. 

 These must take time to mature. Pre- 

 vious to their full development they 



