April 1, 1901] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
sulphate are purposely excludecl. The figures given 
for the last three years, set out as ounces of quiniue, 
are as follows : 
1900. 1899. 189S. 
Production ... 12,261,000 12,447,000 12,855,000 
Consumption ... 14,818,000 14,861,000 14,464,000 
Thus we have been drawing on stocks of bark, 
that in London having fallen from nearly 20,000 
packages to less than 10,000. Allowing for the in 
crease in stocks of quinine, the net reduction in the 
last year of bark and quinine stocks is given as 
1,213,000 ozj of the latter. 
Moreover, Java bark has been falling off in quality 
as well as quantity. In 1897, 5,315,000 kilos oilered 
gave 10,256,000 ounces of quinine ; in 1900, 5,260,000 
kilos only gave 8,735,000 ounces. About 900,000 
ounces of quinine have been sold in Java during 
1900. This manufacture locally has undoubtedly had 
the marked influence, as stated, of forcing European 
makers to maintain a good unic for bark and a low 
price for quinine. Java planters have thus the matter 
in their own hands (irrespective of financial obliga- 
tions) and, if they behave sensibly, we ons^ht to see 
higher prices still this year. — British and Colonial 
Druggist, Feb, 15. 
THE WORLD'S SUPPLY OF CRUDE 
RUBBER. 
NO CHANCE OF A MONOPOLY. 
There is no real scarcity of rubber. Vasfc sup- 
plies exist in forests which have never yet been 
" worked," and there is rubber in warehouses in 
many markets, and afloat on the seas, for all who 
have the money to pay for it. Every country that 
ever yielded any rubber continues to do s® ; every 
grade of rubber that ever came to market is still 
comin'T ; the world's total production, as rule, 
becomes greater eveiy year. All who have use 
for rubber goods of any sore find the market 
amply supplied. Where, then, is the scarcity? 
Id is true that, now and then, consumption gains 
on the rate of production of the raw material, and 
prices may rise in consequence, bat this very fact 
starts more gatherers to work, and prices tend 
downward again. Of course all crude rubber 
costs more than formerly, but this is true of many 
other things, and consumers now are as able to 
pay for the rubber goods they need as people 
ever were. 
Nofear need be felt that the supply of rubber will 
ever be monopolised. Could such a thing be done, 
the manufacturer, first, and the consumer of rubber 
goods, in the end, might be made to suffer exac- 
tions hard to '>ear. But a consolidation of all the 
firms, in various parts of the world, who have 
capital invested in handling crude rubber, would be 
out of the question, if only for the reason that the 
rubber business is as a rule carried on in connection 
with other trading, from which it would be difficult 
to separate it. A complete monopoly of rubber, 
then, would mean a great general trading company 
constantly liable to competition from new sources, 
in respect not only to rubber but to all the other 
commodities. The success of the Standard Oil 
Co., a notable example of monopoly, is due to their 
complete control of the natural supplies, confined 
to a limited and accessible territory, and to hand- 
ling their products on a very large sen^e, making 
great economies possible. Rubber, on the other 
hand, is obtained throughout a wide belt, extend- 
ing around the world, but mostly in regions re- 
mote from civilised centres, unsuited for white 
men ; it comes in driblets to innumerable initial 
markets, from millions of gatherers, whose labor 
practically is beyond control. Moreover, if all 
86 
the forests now yielding rubber, and all the rub- 
ber gatherers at work, and all the houses trad- 
ing m rubber in America, Europe, A.sia, and 
Africa, were brought under a single control, the 
possibility would exist of new forests being ex- 
plored, new workers found, and new trading houses 
opened, every one of which facts would "tend to 
the overthrow of the monopoly. 
As for the future of rubber prices, certain con- 
siderations are worthy of attention. In the first 
place, the great increase in the demand for raw- 
material in recent years has been due both to 
new uses of rubber, and to the introduction of 
the use of rubber goods into new fields. In not 
a few cases the recent rate of growth doubtless is 
meeting a check for the present, whereas the pro- 
duction of rubber seems likely to continue, in 
which event it would seem that prices should 
decline. On the other hand, a very marked de- 
cline in prices would lead to still further new uses 
of rubber, which would prevent the cost from 
sinking to former levels, or at least from staying 
there very long. In this connection may be men- 
tioned the widespread interest in planting lubber, 
the outcome of which can hardly fail to be, within 
ten or twenty years, a considerable addition to the 
world's supply of this commodity, which will fur- 
ther enable its use to be extended. 
The constant fluctuations in the price of rubber 
are most inconvenient at times for manufacturers, 
especially where contracts are made for supjjlying 
goods at a certain price, which price may fail 
to yield a profit on account of a heavy and un- 
expected advance in the cost of the raw material. 
Here is involved, by the way, the whole question 
of speculation in rubber prices by manufacturers, 
to which a further article will 'be devoted in a 
latter issue. But manufacturers have it in their 
power, to a certain extent, to protect themselves 
against some of the unpleasant effects of fluctua- 
tions in prices by keeping on hand larger stocks 
ot rubber instead of the "hand to mouth " policy 
of buying that so many of them pmsae.— India 
Bubher Warld, Feb. 1. 
TEA PLANTING IN JAVA. 
PAYING WELI. : BUT EXTENSIONS NOT PUSHED t 
Tea-growing pays so well in Ja\a that the area 
under the staple shows increase. Yet capitalists, 
as a rule, shrink from investing money in this 
line of enterprise. The Batavia Nieuwsblad de- 
plores this lack of interest at the present time, 
when coffee is on the down grade and when, owing 
to the abandonment of many coftee estates, 
thousands of labourers thrown out of employment 
can be started on tea-planting. Investors object 
that tea-growing stands under the disadvantage 
of no dividends being available in the early years 
of an estate. The reply is that this is made good 
by the heavy dividends sure to come once the 
estate has begun to bear.— S^rai^s Times, Feb. 25 
Fibre Production by Indigo Planters.— The 
cultivation of fibre-producing plants has lately 
been taken up rather extensively in India, parti- 
cularly in the indigo districts ; and there would 
appear to be every promise of satisfactory returns 
being obtained by the planters. A sample of agave 
fibre, decorticated by Paure's machine, recently 
sent home, has been valued at £24 a ton, which 
should make its production a fairly profitable one 
to the grower. — Englishman. 
