200 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist. 



GUAYULE RUBBER. 



BECOMING UNIMPORTANT. 



In the u Kew Bulletin" No. 7, 1907, p. 285, 

 an account was given of the Guayule Rubber 

 industry in Mexico, From the following despatch 

 from His Majesty's Minister, Mexico, which has 

 been received at Kew through the courtesy 

 of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, it 

 would appear that the commercial importance of 

 the Guayule plant will very shortly be a thing 

 of the past: — 



HIS MAJESTY'S MINISTER, MEXICO, TO THE 

 SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFATRS. 



Mexico, May 19th, 1908. 



Sir, — With reference to my Despatch of thia 

 Series No 52 of December 3rd, 1906, and to later 

 Despatches on the subject of Guayule (rubber) in 

 Mexico, I have the honour to report that an 

 American expert, who has been spending some 

 time in this Republic in an exhaustive study of 

 the Guayule industry has made the following 

 pronouncement, which I hear from other sources 

 is a fairly correct statement : — 



" Based upon a conservative estimate there 

 are only about 400,000 tons of guayule now in 

 existence, either standing in its native soil, or 

 at the plants, or on the way to the plants for 

 extraction. 



" This scarcity has become so marked that 

 the most remote sections or districts are now 

 being scoured and searched for the plant, and 

 what appears to be the last place where the 

 shrub can be found in any quantity, the Bolson 

 de Mapimi district, is being thoroughly gone 

 over and the guayule gathered and delivered 

 under contract to the Continental Rubber Com- 

 pany of Mexico. 



" This district, which lies between the Sierra 

 Mojada and Torreon, is practically the last 

 remaining district there is guayule in any con- 

 siderable quantity, all the other sections having 

 been pretty well cleaned up and the remainder 

 of the 400,000 tons has long since been purchased 

 by the various extracting companies at prices 

 ranging from §25 to S75 per ton (£2 10s to £7 10s). 



" The purchases at the lower prices were 

 made before the landowners realised the value 

 of the shrub, or entertained the slightest sus- 

 picion that the plant would not reproduce 

 itself in a very short time. 



" On account of the extremely slow-growing 

 habits of the shrub this has been found to be 

 improbable, and it is a practical certainty that 

 with the consumption of the existing supply of 

 400,000 tons above-mentioned, the guayule in- 

 dustry will go into decay. 



" It had been hoped that experiments would 

 be made by parties interested in the production, 

 in the planting of seed and joining it with some 

 kindred plant to accelerate its growth so that a 

 wait of but four or live years would be necessary 

 for the plant to obtain the proper size for ex- 

 traction. This could be effected by grafting 

 the guayule upon some kindred plant the roots 

 of which, would furnish the guayule tops with a 

 greater flow of sap and consequently a more 

 rapid growth than its own roots would furnish. 



" Whether this can be successfully done or 

 not remains to be seen, and has ne\rer, so far 

 as I know, been attempted. 



" In this grafting, however, is the only hope 

 for the future of the guayule industry, as it 

 is said the opinion of eminent botanists in the 

 United States has been that the plants of two 

 feet in height now being extracted have required 

 seventy years for their growth. 



" So far no reports have been made that any 

 of the experiments which have been tried hold 

 out any encouragement or prospect of success of 

 reproduction ; and it is more than likely that 

 unless the grafting as described be tried and 

 found successful, the end of the industry will 

 come when the present supply of guayule is 

 exhausted. The mills will then be turned to 

 some other use and the machinery disman- 

 tled or turned to the extraction of fibre or 

 other similar uses. 



11 The flora of Mexico is, however, so varied, 

 interesting and so entirely unknown that the un- 

 tiring work of the chemist is likely at any time 

 to discover possibilities in some of these plants 

 that will make the guayule industry appear of 

 trifling significance.'' — I have, etc., 



(Signed) Reginald Tower. 

 — Kew Bulletin, No. 6, 1908. 



RUBBER IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA. 



(a) Rubber. — The total output of rubber for 

 1906 (including exports from Northern Nigeria) 

 amounted to 3,434,279 lb., valued locally at 

 £307,077, as compared with 3,109,707 lb., valued 

 at £249,043, in the previous year. Experiments 

 were made with a view to preparing rubber of a 

 better quality with the ordinary appliances 

 available to the natives, and it was found that 

 with the exercise of a little care as regards 

 straining the latex of impurities, washing the 

 freshly coagulated latex, and cutting it up into 

 thin stripes that can be more easily dried in 

 wood smoke, a product was obtained that was 

 valued in England at prices ranging from 4s. 6d. 

 to 4s. 8d. a lb., when best Brazilian Para was 

 selling at 5s. 2rf. a lb. The latex experimented 

 with was that of Ftintumia elastica, and nothing 

 but the most simple articles such as demijohns, 

 earthen pots, a sieve, and a empty bottle or two, 

 were used for preparing the rubber. 



Demonstrations were given to the rangers, 

 foresters, forest guards, and pupils in such sim- 

 ple methods of preparing the improved produce, 

 and it is hoped that the natives generally will 

 adopt the system. There is not the slightest 

 doubt that the price of our best rubbers such as 

 that procured from Funtumia elastica, Landol- 

 phia Owariensis, and Clitandra elastica can 

 be doubled by the exercise of a little care in the 

 preparation of the produce. Such efforts, how- 

 ever, will not be successful unless a substantially 

 higher price is paid to the natives for the 

 superior article and the Adulteration of Produce 

 Ordinance is simultaneously put into force. 

 The two rangers, who were sent to French 

 Guinea for the purpose of learning the methods 

 employed there in preparing rubber, returned 

 to Southern Nigeria towards the end of the year, 

 and have since been employed in teaching the 

 natives of the rubber yielding districts of the 

 Protectorate what thay have learnt. — Colonial 

 Office Report, 1908. 



