Gums, Renins, 



Any new rubber substitute should be hailed with delight by the rubber 

 planter. As the substitutes can only be used as adulterants, as ingredients for 

 mixing with the pure rubber goods, the more rubber articles will be used, and the 

 greater will be the demand for pure rubber. 



CULTIVATION POSSIBLE. 



Is rubber culture a possibility ? Can the rubber producing plants be 

 cultivated ? This has been answered in the negative by a number of persons who 

 sit in their chamber and speculate, who write " expert" reports without knowing 

 anything about the subject. Is there a plant which man has not been able to 

 cultivate? Is there a cultivated plant which man has not been able to improve? 



It has cost immense amounts of capital to ascertain the right methods of 

 cultivation, but man has succeeded in making any plant he wauted, to grow 

 for his benefit. He has also succeeded with the rubber plants. 



We have a great number of plants that produce rubber, but there are only 

 half a dozen which can be cultivated profitably for commercial purposes. Of these 

 there are only two that really need to be considered, the Para rubber (Hevea) and 

 the Central American rubber {(htstilloa). The former is now cultivated to some 

 extent in Ceylon and India, and has in places proved a success. In Mexico it is not 

 likely that the Para tree will be extensively cultivated. In Brazil, its native 

 country, very little cultivation has, as yet, been commenced, all the Para rubber 

 coming from wild trees. Rubber planting is now done on a large scale in Southern 

 Mexico, and this is at present the principal rubber culture country in the world. 

 The cultivation is here confined exclusively to the native tree Castilloa. 



INEXPERIENCE AND FRAUD. 



In view of the fact that so much ignorance prevails and so little real 

 knowledge exists in regard to method-! of cultivation it is astonishing that the 

 industry has reached its present state. It is in such ignorance we have to look for 

 the greatest danger to the rubber planting business, because it has given opportu- 

 nity for so much fraud. Numerous fake companies have been promoted in the United 

 States for the purpose of developing rubber plantations that do not exist, and 

 other companies have been greatly over-capitalised. The public has naturally 

 become suspicious toward all rubber planting companies and many legitimate 

 concerns have suffered. 



It is, however, wrong to presume that, because fraud has been practised 

 in many cases, every rubber plantation is more or less of a swindle. Banks have 

 failed because of dishonesty; in every kind of business mismanagement, stealing 

 and other similar proceedings have resulted in ruin and scandal. Still nobody would 

 maintain that every bank was a very uncertain and risky enterprise. In every 

 case we have to inquire into the integrity of the men standing behind the 

 concern in question. 



CAUSE OF FAILURES. 



If we investigate the causes that have produced some of the most disastrous 

 and sensational failures of rubber plantations we shall find that in every case such a 

 company was not promoted as a "bona fide" and legitimate enterprise for the pur- 

 pose of building up a successful plantation, but that the whole scheme was intended 

 to benefit the promoters. In some cases the home office expenses have exhausted the 

 entire capital, and little or nothing has been lefb for the development of the plan- 

 tation. Some of these plantations have been started on soil which is in every way 

 unsuitable for the cultivation of rubber. On others they have had no idea about 

 the correct way of planting the rubber tree, and the plantations do not show a 

 result corresponding to the outlay. Sometimes the development work has been 



