Gums, Resins, 



204 



[September, 1911. 



have had different methods of tapping, 

 and while there may be a hesitation on 

 the part of some as to the foundation 

 of getting enormous profits, there must 

 be big profit in the business when we 

 can take it out at 50 cents a pound and 

 sell for $1*40, with the unskilled labour 

 here, 



One thing that appears interesting to 

 me in the experiments of the Nakiku 

 Rubber Co. under Mr. Anderson is the 

 fact that boys do the work very well. 

 It is not a heavy class of work ; it does 

 not require much brute force. It merely 

 requires a little manual skill and 

 dexterity. They are very quick in 

 collecting the rubber. It is all light 

 work, and they can easily carry a 

 bucket, perhaps faster than a grown 

 person, and do the work just as well. 

 That indicates that in that cheap labour 

 we can find a solution of the problem 

 of reducing the expense, provided the 

 price of rubber should fall below where 

 the rubber growers might wish it to fall. 



In the matter of diseases and the 

 insects and pests of rubber I do not 

 believe they are very serious so far. It 

 may be that some will develop of which 

 we know nothing now, and there are but 

 few instances of trees which have been 

 seriously affected by the shot-hole 

 fungus or even with rats as soon as the 

 ground in between the trees has been 

 cleared up. 



Another point is the matter of alti- 

 tude. 1 don't know whether it would 

 be wise, it never is commercially, to try 

 to find the limit of altitude in which 

 rubber can be grown, but in going over 

 the plantations last May I was enabled 

 to note that the rubber grew as well 

 at 1,400 feet as it did at some lower ele- 

 vations where it received the attention 

 that it deserved. However, an altitude 

 up to 1,300 or 1,400 feet does not seem 

 to affect the rapidity of the growth. 



The question of the kind of rubber to 

 be grown here is somewhat left open 

 yet, but the decidedly more rapid growth 

 of ceara seems to indicate that that is 

 the one upon which we can depend at 

 present. There is also the heyea and 

 the castilloa, which have been discussed. 

 There have been at times a number who 

 have been enthusiastic about the growth 

 of hevea, but it is so slow as compared 

 with ceara, and is affected so much more 

 by the winds and altitude, for it seems to 

 dwindle out at 1,000 or 1,100 feet, that it 

 seems that the ceara tree is the one to 

 grow here. And as to the rapidity of 

 growth, we may say that the ceara 

 does remarkably well here, and is per- 



fectly satisfactory as to the rate of 

 growth, and in the most part in the 

 shape of the trees. 



Referring again to the tapping ex- 

 periments which Mr, Anderson has been 

 carrying on, I would suggest that a 

 device might be gotten up which would 

 hold several knives at the same time. 

 That might be possible if we had several 

 trees the same size in trunk ; one knife 

 might not cut as deep as the other 

 knife, and in straight cuts a device 

 something like the instrument that was 

 submitted to Mr, Hosmer from a Mexican 

 rubber expert might be modified in 

 such a manner as to carry several knives, 

 but the device itself would have to be 

 worked outright on the plantation. As 

 a matter of fact all of the actual, 

 practical details of how to make rubber 

 economically have to be worked out 

 by the man who has charge of the 

 plantation. We cannot depend upon 

 any man who has other things to bother 

 about, and is looking at it from a 

 different standpoint from the man who 

 is interested in it. He cannot wox'k at 

 the practical details. Iam always glad 

 to do whatever I can do toward the 

 encouragement of any industry which 

 really promises to give rewards which 

 warrant one in being encouraged, and I 

 have been impressed with the manage- 

 ment of industries which are more or 

 less new, and on which we have only 

 limited. local experience. 



One of the things in gaining success is 

 noc to be too enthusiastic at first, not to 

 expect three or four hundred per cent., 

 not to expect that the crops are going 

 to grow without attention, and not to 

 expect that there is going to be no 

 trouble. The plants require attention. 

 It requires not only money, but brains 

 and industry joined together and applied 

 to the business at all times in order to 

 make a success of it, and I honestly 

 believe that the results which we have 

 gotten so far from rubber show that not 

 only have there been men with the 

 courage to put their money into it, but 

 that the work which has been done by 

 the men who have had practically to 

 manage this business, has been con- 

 scientious and has brought about results 

 which are all that any reasonable man 

 can expect, and so, gentlemen, it seems 

 to me that these results are very 

 encouraging at the present time. If you 

 can get profit from the trees you have 

 now, 1 do not see that there should be 

 any worry about the methods. In 

 looking after the little details which 

 may improve the business from your 

 standpoint, the proposition to unite the 

 companies together I believe would be a 



