Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-05-02
Another Home Production.

AuVtaACt n
The fact that over ten million
pounds of crude India-rubber are
imported into the United States
every year, strongly suggests the adj
visibility of the home cultivation OF
the caoutchouc tree. The East In
dies and Central America produce
large quantities of this article;
Brazil furnishing, by far. the best
quality. 1t is estimated that this
country alone exports about twelve
millions pounds annually, quite half
of which amount comes to the
United States to be manufactured
into the almost infinite variety of ar
ticles for which it is used. There is
NO substance, unless we except wood
itself, that enters more largely into
the manufacture OF the various do
mestic and mechanical implements
and devices of the day, than hard
and soft caoutchouc. It would re-
auire q respectable pamphlet to con-
tain O list of all the uses to which
this remarkable substance is now
applied. The question as to what
becomes of ell the rubber, assumes
q good deal Of importance when one
i contemplating the ship-loads OF
the crude material that arrive at our
aesports during q twelve month,
from those tropical regions which
produce it. But, on the other hand,
the question is easily answered when
No observe how extensively it is used
for betting in the machinery which
transmits the driving power of saw
mills, printing presses. the lathes,
planners and borers of the various
factories, and the thousand-and-one
lesser industries in our land. No
small amount is consumed in max
ing the springs for railway cars, for
packing around the joints in steam
engines, Tor water hose and flexible
gas pipes. Finally, it would involve
m almost endless task to enumerate
the instances of its application to
give elasticy to woven fabrics. That
of medium hardness, is used for
boots and shoes, and waterproof
garments of many KINDS.
As it sxudes from the tree, ca
ontchouc is a milky fluid which has
q tendency to grow hard and stiff on
exposure to the air. 1t is supposed
that its dark color is owing to the
smoke of the pitchy fires over which
it is dried by the natives who gather
it for shipment. Be this as it may,
it is certain that if the trees were
grown in civilized lands and the
most approved means adopted for
gathering and drying the resinous
liquid, it could be vastly improved
in quality. There are millions of
acres of land in the southern part of
Florida which, it is thought, might
be proftably utilized by being cleared
and planted to the several species of
the ruober-producing tree. In this
way. the whole industry, beginning
with the tapping of the trees for
gathering the raw liquid, might be
brought within the sphere of labor
saving appliances, while a large
amount of money would thus be
kept at home instead Of being sent
away, as is now done, for inferior
grades of this commodity. In some
cases, as high as thirty or forty per
cent. of impurities have to be driven
away by heat from the caoutchouc
of commerce, as it is landed on our
wharves. These impurities certainly
do not exist in the milky fluid, as it
comes drop by drop from the cut
tings made in the trees. Much of
the refuse matter separated in the
process of manufacture, consists of
clay, which is introduced through
the primitive and clumsy means,
adopted by the natives for catching
and carrying the liquid to the ship
ping stations. It would be a grand
thing, if, during the remainder of
the present century, the caoutchouc
tree, the tea plant and the quinine-
producing tree, could be successfully
introduced and cultivated in practi-
cal way in the United States. Some
advance in this direction has been