Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-16

THEY
are so dense and extensive that pros
pectors are bewildered.
The Rubber Industry.
There are several rubber plantations along
the road which have been the subjects of
considerable controversy because some or
the corporations that own them have Of
fered their stock to the public for sale upon
guarantees OF dividends that cannot posi-
bly, be paid. Nobody should buy stock in
rubber plantation; nobody should buy stock
in a coffee plantation or in a sugar planta-
ton or in any other kind OF tropical
farming proposition down here unless they
are prepared to take great risks. The risk
in rubber is greater than In anything else.
because rubber culture Is still In the ex-
perimental stage. 1t has been successful
In Ceylon, lava and other parts OF the east,
an dthere are several fine-looking groves of
rubber trees down here, but the oldest are
only six or seven years old, and 1t takes
nine or ten years for a rubber tree to ma
ture. Nowhere on this continent has
rubber orchard ever attained maturity. The
domestication OF the plant is compare lively
new, and although the experiments thus far
made have been exceedingly promising and
the chances are that. like every other wild
plant. the product can be improved by care
and attention. nevertheless, no one is yet
able to say that rubber can be profitably
produced by cultivation.
Thus far the worlds supply of rubber has
been obtained entirely from natural forests
Until recently the native rubber gatherers
In Brazil and other countries have killed
the trees in order to get larger proportion
of sap, and that barbarous practice prom
ised To exterminate the source of supply in
snort time, when 1t was stopped by the
Interference of the authorities In nearly all
the countries where rubber grows. Now
the trees are tapped like sugar naples; the
sap drawn from them Is coagulated by
heat or by the addition OF acids and the
crude rubber Is shipped to market In Jumps
Rubber Orchards Planted.
The natural rubber forests of Central
America and Mexico have been pretty well
destroyed, and under the encouragement or
the government artificial cultivation was
undertaken about six years ago. Several
orchards were planted on the line of the
Vera Cruz and Pacific and the Tehuantepec
railroads and they doing well. An Eng
llshman named Pearson has 1900 trees
near TERRA Blanca Station. and although
they are yet immature. he tapped them for
the nrst time last year and sent the crude
rubber home to England. where 1t was sold
at the unusual price of 1.3S gold, which is
nearly twice as much as ordinary natural
rubber brings. Seventy-five cents a pound
Is good price for the best quality. Mr..
Pearsons rubber is said to have been re-
markedly fine in quality and was picked up
by manufacturers for especial purposes. AT
Santa Rosa, on the same road, there Is an
other plantation of several thousand trees
which We're planted the same year as Mr..
PearSon's but have not yet been tapped,
and there are several other orchards within
Few years OF maturity which, IL Is hoped,
Will turn out we'll because IL Is very i'm
portant industry. Experts believe that the
quality of rubber can be improved by culti-
walton, apd no one appears to deny that
proposition. Discussion and doubt, how
ever. arise in the consideration of the
profits. An ordinary tree will produce from
one pound to a pound and a half of rubber,
al Aszra ~ mill .,a&n L., f~~w. n
hundred TO a hundred and fifty trees Ii
the product can be sold for a dollar
pound, such an enterprise will pay, but peo-
pie who have had no experience In the
business would be wise to postpone the IN
Vestment OF their money in rubber planta-
tons until they know something more
about II.
Japanese Best Imported Labor.
Both Japanese and Chinese labor have
been tried down here on the railroads, on
the plantations and for other purposes.
There are five gangs of Japanese of De-
tween fifty and two hundred men each
working under contract for the Vera Cruz
and Pacific railroad at the rate of si.So
only 81 a day and their keep. The rest
OF the money goes to the contractors who
brought them over from Japan. Every
body concerned agrees that the Japanese
are the best, most intelligent and indus
trious foreigners on the road. but they are
difficult to keep AS soon as they learn
the language and the ways OF the country
they often violate their agreements with
the agencies which brought them over and