The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-18
KILLING THE RUBBER FORESTS.
Steys at Last Taken to Preserve the Trees
From Destruction.

Steys at Last Taken to Preserve the Trees
From Destruction.
From the New York Sun.
The consumption of India rubber
has grown enormously in recent wears
The trade has been stimulated chiefly
by the use of pneumatic tires on BIZ
cycles. Several years ago it began to
be evident that unless wasteful and de-
structive methods of collecting rubber
We're discontinued the supply would
diminish while the demand was in
creasing. Government after govern
ment has therefore prohibited or re-
stricted the collection of rubber in ats
territory in order to give the plants time
to multiply and recuperate. TIE Congo
Free State has now gone step fur
theC. In addition to its decree of 1892
still in force, which makes il a
serious offense to kill the rubber
plant or to gather rubber in am
way except through incisions in the
bark. it is now made obligatory to plant
$50 vines or trees for every ton of rub
Der collected. 1nfractions of the new
decree are punishable by fine up to So
600 or imprisonment. A bureau of con-
troll of rubber forests has been appoint
ed to guard the rubber interests of the
state and to enforce the DEGREES of 1892
and 1899.
1t is necessary to kill the camphor
tree in order to get camphor, but it is
not necessary to kill any of the varie-
ties of trees and vines that yield rub
Der to collect their juice; and yet this
inexcusably stupid and wasteful meth
Cd has been employed in many coun-
tries, with the result that rubber plants
have been exterminated in hundreds
of thousands of square miles of terri
tory. How speedily this result has been
achieved is illustrated in the recent
Of q Ia crl
In 1880 Fort Dauphin, on the south
coast of that island, was a trade cen
ter of small Importance. Then it was
discovered that rubber was near at
hand in fairly abundant quantities.
A dozen firms from Germany, France,
Mauritius and Tamatave appeared or
the scene and set all the natives they
could muster at work killing the rub
Der plant and collecting its juice. They
paid the satherers nearly $40 for 22O
pounds and sold the product at Tama-
tave at enormous profit. They rushed
the business and ruined it in six years.
In 1896 the natives had to travel north
for week before they could find vino
to cut The product dropped in 1896 to
one-tenth that of 1893. and South Mad
agascar rubber disappeared from the
market in 1897.
All along the west coast of tropical
Africa the trees and vines producing
rubber have been killed for a distance
of 40 to so miles from the sea. In the
| Amazon basin, the greatest rubber
field, this useless destruction of a
| source of wealth has never been prac-
ticed. Small incisions are made in the
bark, the milk is caught in followed
out Jumps of clay placed beneath the
missions, and each tree yields supply
every year. But other American coun-
tries are finding it necessary to adopt
stringent methods TO product the in
dustry. In British and French Guiana
it is now illegal to collect rubber ex-
cept by tapping The trees. The cultiva-
ton of rubber on plantations is now
everywhere encCura ged. The exporta-
ton of the article from part of Mic
araugua, unless produced on planta-
tions, has been prohibited till 1907 on
account of the great destruction of rub
Der trees. Costa Rica has also prohib-
tied the killing of rubber plants.
These steps to save the rubber. indus
try from destruction, both in America
and Africa, were taken none too early,
and the prospects are that the waste
in the forests will Row be greatly re-
duced, while the number of plantations
will gradually be increased.