The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-12-17
FUTURE FOR
RUBBER IS BRIGHT
Confined from Page Nnel

bought by regular purchasers, but all
that the purchasers know is that it
| came from Hawaii. They won t know
| that it came from a certain pIanta-
| ton, while all others are keeping ND
| to the standard. To make the rnhber
| business a success it is necessary to
| grow other crops that could be sold in
rather large quantities to the larger
| plantations. Of course, the difficulties
| confronting the small farmer in Ha-
| wall were greater than those which
| confront mainland farmer. owing to
| the transportation cost, and such.
| Taking bananas as an instance Doe
| tor Wilcox said there have been dozens
| of shipments from Honolulu to the
mainland which have arrived in San
| Francisco in good condition but the re-
| ceipts were so small that the freight
| could not be paid. A man on Maui
| can not therefore raise bananas and
other like products and expect to mar
ket them in San Francisco.
The pineapple situation is somewhat
similar, especially as to shipping fresh
fruit. The shipment of freish pines.
he said is very discouraging on account
| of the tremendous loss from rot. and
the enormous cost of shipping in cold
storage, to prevent that rot. is almost
prohibitive. He instanced shipments
| from one pineapple plantation where
they have practically lest $4,000 on
| their crop the receipts not having even
paid for the freights.
Under these conditions there are left
only very few crops which can be
safely grown by the small grower with
the idea that there is to be certain
market for the stuff. He had no hest
tation in saying that rubber can be
grown that will give reasonable price
for whatever of that crop he gets. pro-
vided it is brought to the market in
standard form.
He spoke of his recent visit to the
mainland and the fact that in many
instances where he registered at hotel.
rubber men came to him and asked if
rubber was being produced in Hawaii.
They wanted to know how much they
could get here.
He believed that cotton could be
grown as biproduct with rubber, but
did not recommend tobacco, as the lat
ter required too much soil strength,
which would have bad effect on the
rubber trees.
Tapping in Java.
F. T. P. Warehouse, who recently
returned from a visit to two rubber
plantations in Java in which he is in
terested, gave an interesting talk on
the methods of tapping trees there. He
said the coolies were better trained
nowadays and that gouge now used
brought more latex than heretofore
Cuts were different today than a few
years ago The old herringbone system
produced a lumpy bark He gave an
idea of the methods of caring for the
latex after the tree was tapped. He
said that owing to the great demand
today for rubber younger trees were
being tapped, but this system, of
course, required larger number of
trees to be tapped to get the same
weight of biscuits of rubber. than from
older ones.
Mr.. Waterhouse said his company in |
Java was quite up to date and that it |
was using disc harrows to cultivate the |
land between rows of rubber trees.
Enemies of Trees.
E. M. Ehrhorn, entomologist of the
board of agriculture, gave an interest
ing informal talk on the enemies of |
rubber trees and cited the shothole fun
gus and the aphis which covered the
leaves as on banyan trees with dark
covering. For this he felt that
Bordeaux wash would answer the pur-
pose, of course, taking the trees when
young and not when they have attain
ed great height.
Tells of Mexican Rubber.
4 Mr. Jarvis, rubber planter of !
Mexico, stated that a plantation in
which he was interested in Mexico was
about year old. The first month they
planted twenty acres from wild plants
from the forest. These are now doing )
well. Last May they planted $50 900 |
trees entirely from seed. From tan
pings they have obtained a standard of
50 per cent. The American Manufac- |
turing Company of Oakland pronounced |
their samples the very best.
At the morning session a number of
papers were read. Mr. Lindsay gave |
statistics concerning the industry.
There are III the Islands five incor-
porated companies whose princinal |
business is the growing of rubber. Sta |
tistics were read from all Of these and |
also from two individual planters. The |
whole Territory was represented with |
the exception of Oahu and Kauai. Six |
reports were received from Maui and |
one from Hawaii The acreage con- |
trolled by these companies and indi- |
viduals is $500 acres. The acreage
planted to date is 1888 acres, viz: 242 !
in Hevea, 1892 in Ceara and four acres |
with other varieties. The total num- |
Der of rubber trees planted is 430.l40, |
of which 1920 are Hevea, $40 400 in !
Ceara and 500 with other varieties.
Four plantations practise clean cul-
tivation. the managers of two of these
considering it absolutely necessary.
From reports received there are II 900
rubber trees that may possibly be
tapped commercially during the wear
1910. Fertilizers are considered too
expensive to use in sufficient quanti-
ties at present to be beneficial
c. J.. Austin was the first speaker,
and spoke at length on Hevea and
Ceara. He seemed inclined to favor
the former. although it was slower
grower than the latter. ''Hevea is