455 
wish  to  leave  with  the  members  of  this  Association  is  that  those 
who  establish  forest  plantations  now,  will  reap  sufficient  reward 
in  the  years  to  come  to  justify  the  thought  and  financial  outlay 
that  may  be  necessary  to  get  such  groves  started.  An  ounce  of 
prevention  is  worth  a pound  of  cure.  Now  is  the  time  to  make 
sure  of  the  ounce. 
MARKETING  RUBBER. 
By  Fred  L.  Waldron. 
Present  prices  offered  for  rubber  naturally  give  us  the  encour- 
agement which  is  desirable  for  the  pioneer  work  and  investment 
in  the  rubber  industry  in  Hawaii. 
On  account  of  the  small  area  suitable  for  the  raising  of  rubber 
trees,  Hawaii  can  never  be  a producer  to  the  extent  of  influencing 
rather  “bearing”  the  market  value  of  rubber  at  any  mart  of  im- 
portance. 
From  this  fact  it  does  not  follow  that  we  simply  have  to  accept 
what  might  be  offered  by  our  nearest  buyer,  neither  does  it  follow 
that  we  do  not  become  a very  important  factor  in  creating  a high 
standard  which  would  become  known  and  demand  more  than  the 
ordinary  high  level  of  quotations. 
It  is  not  very  many  years  since  products  of  almost  any  nature 
were  sold  by  the  producer  with  little  thought  of  grading  and 
establishing  a mark  of  quality.  Under  present  conditions,  the 
proper  grading  of  all  articles  is  of  first  importance  in  order  to 
obtain  full  values,  and  the  man  of  quality,  whether  he  sells  crude 
rubber  or  rubber  shoes,  is  the  man  who  buys  out  at  his  own  price, 
and  unfortunate  is  the  man  whose  ideas  are  so  ancient  as  to  allow 
him  to  lose  sight  of  these  points. 
At  the  present  time  Hawaii  probably  contains  the  most  thorough 
and  painstaking  sugar  growers  in  the  world.  These  remarks  not 
only  apply  to  the  raising  of  sugar  but  also  to  a systematic  method 
of  marketing. 
As  a contrast,  I cannot  pass  this  opportunity  without  mention- 
ing the  status  of  the  producers  of  rice,  honey,  coffee  and  certain 
fruits,  all  of  which  products  are  being  marketed  without  organiza- 
tion with  the  results  that  quite  frequently  a seller  is  placing  one- 
half  of  his  offerings  in  competition  with  the  other  half.  This  un- 
fortunate condition  in  the  case  of  the  articles  mentioned,  is  mainly 
on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  bringing  together  the  different 
nationalities  engaged  in  the  raising  of  such  products.  Referring 
as  an  example  to  the  rice  industry  in  the  handling  of  which  there 
is  no  system  either  in  the  grading  or  marketing,  it  is  my  firm 
belief  that  for  a number  of  years  back  the  producers  have  lost  an 
average  of  50  cents  per  bag  or  say  12^2%,  simply  by  carelessness 
of  grading  and  the  lack  of  an  organized  exchange  for  marketing. 
