374 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



the high-handed methods of Suzuki & Co., of 

 Kobe, a Japanese tirm which has a monopoly 

 of the export of the refined article ; and, also, 

 that the threat is held out that if steps are 

 not taken to put a stop to the arbitrary proce- 

 dure cf Suzuki & Oo., the American firms will 

 boycott Japanese camphor. The Oil Reporter 

 proceeds to say that to carry out such a threat 

 would mean the retirement of the parties to it 

 from the camphor market and would be playing 

 consistently and directly into the hands of the 

 enemy, supposing Suzuki and other Japanese 

 refiners to be the enemy. The paper goes on 

 to state that about two years ago the price of 

 refined camphor was forced up as high as 1"24 

 dollar per pound, although today the same 

 material is quoted at 45 cents. A steady upward 

 movement had been in progress since 1905, 

 but in June, 1907, the first break occurred, and 

 this eventually led to a free-for-all market at 68 

 cents. At this time the firm of Samuel, Samuel 

 & Co. were the exclusive selling agents for the 

 camphor monopoly, which fixed a price limit 

 at which the gum was to be sold. There was 

 nothing, however, to prevent the sub-agents 

 in New York, who distributed the crude cam- 

 phor to American refiners, from selling it to 

 whom they pleased and a few American re- 

 finers were favoured to the exclusion of others, 

 with the result that the favoured few were 

 enabled to and did fix the price of camphor 

 to suit themselves. An energetic search was, 

 therefore, made for other sources of supply and 

 Chinese camphor became quite a factor in the 

 American market. Every encouragement pos- 

 sible was also for a time lent to the cultivation 

 of the camphor tree in Florida and Texas. It 

 was also found that a synthetic article, the pro- 

 duct of a German laboratory, could be produced 

 in commercial quantities to compete with the 

 natural gum at its then market value. The 

 Japanese Government became alarmed and 

 undertook a far-reaching investigation, Com- 

 missioners going to New York. Japan deter- 

 mined to make radical changes in her method 

 of camphor distribution. The services of the 

 Samuels were dispensed with, the Monopoly 

 appointed its own distributing agents in the 

 United States and elsewhere, the American com- 

 bine was broken, the price of camphor roceded 

 to a normal basis governed by the law of supply 

 and demand and the substitutes disappeared. 

 The Japanese also determined to secure as 

 much of the profit as the trade would yield for 

 themselves, and started refining on their own 

 account. Japanese refined camphor began to 

 find its way to America in increasing quantities 

 and the American refining business naturally 

 began to suffer. Supposedly, refiners of camphor 

 the world over are on an equal footing. There 

 is, however, a supposition that the refiners in 

 Japan are particularly or unduly favoured, and 

 that their raw material is furnished to them on 

 exceptional terms, which enables them to enter 

 foreign markets and capture the business of 

 the domestic refiners. It is certain that the 

 Japanese are gradually if not rapidly ac- 

 quiring a monopoly of all camphor business, 

 crude and refined, in the United States, 

 and they are enabled to do this by under- 

 selling their competitors. It has been sug- 



gested on behalf of the American refiners that 

 pressure should be brought to bear upon Con- 

 gress to procure additional protection. The 

 fact remains, however, that, tax or no tax, the 

 Japanese want the trade and intend to get it. 

 They control the crude supply of the worid ; 

 and what, in this circumstance, could bo more 

 natural than that they should exercise the 

 same power over refined ? They can drive 

 American refineries out of business by under- 

 selling them, or by simply declining to export 

 crude camphor. The latter is done as follows 

 The owners of camphor forests or others en- 

 titled to work the same are free to produce as 

 much as they like ; but, as they must sell their 

 entire product to the Monopoly Bureau at such 

 a price as the latter may see fit to give, by 

 lowering the price of the gum to a point which 

 would make its harvesting unprofitable, the 

 outturn of crude camphor can be conveniently 

 curtailed. There seems, therefore, nothing to 

 be done. If the Japanese wish to create a 

 monopoly of refined camphor it is difficult to 

 see how an American protest is going to stand 

 permanently in the way. It is also practically 

 certain that the Japanese, so long as their sup- 

 ply of camphor lasts, will never again allow 

 the price to reach a point that may invite the 

 competition of substitutes. 



RUSSIAN TEA-GROWING. 



London, Aug. 26.— In Russia, Messrs. K. 

 and S. Popoff are taking advantage of the in- 

 creasing consumption of tea in that country 

 to resume culture on their abandoned plan- 

 tations which last year were thoroughly wee- 

 ded and cleaned and are now likely to yield 

 a good crop of green tea this year. There 

 are thirteen villages in Batoum entirely de- 

 voted to tea culture. The gardens are the 

 property respectively of the Imperial Govern- 

 ment and the brothers Popoff, and there are 

 three factories connected with these, owned 

 one each by the Government, and Messrs. 

 Popoff, and one by Mr. Verderefsky. The Im- 

 perial tea goes chiefly to the big Russian Cities 

 such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, and the 

 rest is disposed of in tho local markets at prices 

 varying from about half-a-crown to five shill- 

 ings per pound. Tho total revenue from these 

 teas amounted to £17,700 in 1908, and as last 

 year the crops were nearly doubled, the revenue 

 for 1909 will show a certain increase on that 

 amount. — Statesman, Sept. 15. 



SMOKING LATEX. 



A NEW MACHINE 



has just been designed by Mr Geo. S Brown of 

 Talawakelle and Mr J R Farbridge — Managing 

 Director of " Chula " Tea Drier Co., for which 

 they have jointly applied for patents in the var- 

 ious Rubber Growing Countries. 



The first machine will be put to the test 

 within two weeks either in the Kelani Valley 

 or Kalutara. 



The natural or chemical combination of the 

 two essential elements, Carbon and Oxygen for 

 combustion, have been carefully taken into a,c- 



