The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-03-30
EFFORTS TO MEET WORLDS
GROWING NEED OF RUBBER

ming is liable to attack by all kinds
of insects and animals. The delicate
little shrubs are transplanted little
later, but they require great care until
they are nearly six feet high. When
rubber plantation is four years old
| very little work is needed; the trees are
much less subject to pests and dis
ease than an ordinary orchard.
In its fifth year the Hevea seeds
freely in clusters, and in Ceylon the
February air is scented with the sweet
blossom of the rubber trees. AS to the
tapping for the precious latex or milk,
of course the processes differ widely
in the case of wild and cultivated
trees. The collector of wild rubber
bleeds his tree with a sharp machete
and taps only such giants as he knows
will exude in few weeks a big yield
of rubber. The reverse is the case on
a cultivated plantation, where the
greatest care is taken of every tree
and only a small quantity of juice ex-
tracted from each, for the rubber
planter does not think sd much of a
trees yield for one year as for fifty,
and accordingly he studies the trees
health. In tapping the bark is pene-
trated SO as to get at the tiny tubes
without injuring the wood. 1t is sur
prising what a rubber tree will endure.
In the old days tapping was done
cautiously by means of an incision
here and there at long intervals, but
now it has been proved that the whole
bark can be tapped without ill effect.
little to do with the trees nourish-
ment, and in one season a good speci-
men will yield seven pounds of fine
rubber.
A series of oblique cuts are made
across the stem and a cup put at the
end to receive the milk. This is the
herringbone system and may run from
the trees base to a point six feet up.
Some of the finer trees have yielded as
much as sixteen pounds of fine rub
Der in a year, but this is exceptional.
The profits of rubber culture are
tempting. Thus an investor who &C
quires one acre of six-year-o trees
al say $1,000 may look for an income
of that amount from the milk of his
trees. These will live for a hundred
years, and it seems that the older they
get the more hardy they become and
the larger and more certain their yield
1t will be many years before the new
plantations of ceylon and Malay are
ready for tapping, and the most &C
cessible regions of the Amazon have
been tapped to death as the dealers
of Para put it. The Brazilian export
Is now stationary, although collectors
have gone further and further afield
into the Amazonian jungle.
Already the Germans are planting a
Saluafata, near Apia in Samoa; and
even in far off Borneo 100000 young
trees have been planted within the last
year or two. The great demand and
limited supply accounts for the enor-
nous profits derived by King Leopold
of Belgium from the wild rubber vines
of the Congo forests.
There is vast rubber concern oper-
ating in the Upper Congo, which in
turn is divided into smaller concerns.
One of these operates in a territory
%, 600 miles in extent, and a 800 share
in it is worth today $4,000. In four
years this minor company paid nearly
s4,000.000 in net profits
The milk is brought to the preparing
house in cans and there poured into
pans with few drops of acetic acid to
induce coagulation. Then the rubber
pancakes are rolled by hand or put