Gums, Resins, 



206 



[September, 190s). 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMAZON. 



(Prom the India Rubber World, Vol. 

 XXXIX., No. 4, January, 1909.) 

 The company referred to on another 

 page as having been formed to execute 

 greatly needed improvement works at 

 the port of Para, through which the 

 great supply of Amazon rubber passes, 

 and at which arrives the miscellaneous 

 assortment of the world's products which 

 pay for this rubber, is composed of men 

 of responsibility and distinction in the 

 development of enterprises in new 

 countries which the Amazon region 

 distinctly is. The merit of their propo- 

 sition is evident by the sale of their 

 bonds in the leading bourses of the 

 world, though this may count less with 

 some people than the success of the 

 members of the directory in such enter- 

 prises as the Canadian Pacific Railway, 

 the United Fruit Co., and certain im- 

 portant undertakings in South America. 



It is impossible that the southern half 

 of this hemisphere should always remain 

 undeveloped. It happens that the 

 development of the Amazon States 

 naturally proceeds along the lines of 

 least resistance by handling its most 

 valuable natural product— rubber. In 

 order to handle rubber economically and 

 to get into the rubber interior the 

 manufactures of North America and 

 Europe, it is necessary to make it possible 

 for ships to approach nearer to the 

 city of Para. What is proposed to be 

 done there has been done on an immense 

 scale at Liverpool and in New Fork, 

 and why not at Para ? The work is 

 lower at Para because of a smaller 

 volume of traffic up to date, and the 

 fact that the owners of capital are 

 not generally informed as to the possi- 

 bilities of commercial development 

 there. It is not a chimerical proposition 

 at all. It is to the interest of every 

 user of a rubber tyre, to every railroad 

 company, to every consumer of rubber 

 in any form — that the cost of rubber be 

 minimized, and one important item 

 involves the expense of handling freight 

 at the mouth of the Amazon. 



Considered alone, the improvement of 

 the port of Para does not measure with 

 the great engineering works of the 

 world, yet it is of distinct importance 

 and interest to the rubber trade on 

 account of the fact that more than half 

 the crude rubber entering into consump- 

 tion of the world is to-day "lightered" 

 from the Para tmpicthes into steamers 

 for New York and Europe. There is, 

 beyond this, however, the possibility 

 that allied capitalistic interests may go 

 much further and combine with this 



assured improvement at Para other 

 large works of utility, that likewise 

 have a bearing upon commerce in rub- 

 ber. Prior to the beginning of the 

 Para enterprise something had been 

 done at Mananos to facilitate the ship- 

 ment of rubber, and last of all is the 

 projected Madeira-Mamore railway, » 

 which now appears to be a certainty. 

 With the Para and Manaos harbour 

 improvements facilitating ocean ship- 

 ments, and the circumventing of the falls 

 of the Madeira accomplished, and all 

 working in concert — through an under- 

 standing between the investor — isn't it 

 possible that the handling of rubber be- 

 tween forest and factory may be materi- 

 ally cheapened. 



The dream has been indulged in 

 many times that by '' bottling up the 

 Amazon " the Para rubber supply could 

 be so monopolized as to enable a few 

 men to put their own price upon the 

 raw material. But this would be against 

 public policy, and could not long prevail. 

 However, the mere suggestion of the 

 matter has done more than any other 

 one thing to stimulate the planting of 

 rubber in Asia. The intelligent invest- 

 ment of capital does not depend for 

 success upon monopoly, but upon pro- 

 moting permanently the general good, 

 and this seems to afford a sound basis 

 for the grouping of such interests as 

 have been mentioned here in connection 

 with the rubber region. We do not 

 know that this suggestion has been put 

 into words before, and it may be long 

 before the idea here outlined is realized, 

 but its realization would seem as natural 

 as has been the development of the 

 systems whereby wheat from the 

 Western United States is so cheaply 

 placed in the hauds of consumers beyond 

 the Atlantic. The prospect may not 

 be pleasing to the rubber planting 

 interests, but the latter will have 

 ample time in which to strengthen their 

 position before the possibilities of the 

 Amazon have been taken advantage of. 



CASTILLO A ELASTICA. 



(Fi om the India Rubber Journal, Vol. 

 XXXVII. , No. 4, February, 1909.) 

 The pits dug for the uuwary Planter 

 who opens out land in Hevea brasi- 

 liensis without obtaining a preliminary 

 grounding in Plantation lore are shallow 

 compared with those that threaten, or 

 have threatened in the past, the simi- 

 larly careless Castilloa Planter. In the 

 first place there are at least three species 

 of Castilloa which are catalogued as 

 rubber yielding. The first, most impor- 

 tant, and the best yielding variety, is 

 Castilloa elastica, Cervs, 



