The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-12-17
Growers Hold Their Third An
nuaI Convention and Their
Biggest One.
TALKS WERE or INTEREST
WaIdron Elected President for
the Coming Year and Lufkin
Vice President.

Rubber Growers Association, held yes
terday forenoon and afternoon, gave
assurance that one of the new indus
tries in the Islands has been placed on
footing where it is to be reckoned
with the production of sugar and pine
apples-an industry on large scale
With the price of rubber rapidly soar
ing and a demand from all manufac
turers of rubber goods for additional
outputs, the Hawaiian growers feel
that their preliminary efforts 20 estab-
fish rubber plantations have not been
in vain. The association is strong in
numbers, and has the advice of experts
in rubber development, which is GER
tain to do away with many expensive
experiments. The election of officers
for the ensuing year was held, result
ing as follows:
Fred L. Waldron, president; G. D.
Lufkin, vice president; D. c. Lindsay,
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES; w. w. Thayer and
W. W. Williamson, trustees.
The day was devoted to the reading
of reports, addresses on stated subjects
concerning rubber-tree development,
winding up with banquet at the
Young Hotel last evening.
OF interest to all the rubber men
was box of rubber biscuits" or
cakes. as they are sometimes known,
from the Hawaiian-American rubber
plantation on Maui. The cakes were
of good standard quality, and have
been so pronounced by experts.
With President Waldron in the chair,
the following program was carrieda out;
"Hevea or Ceara in Hawaii paper
by C. J. Austin. and discussion; Inter
Crops paper by L. F. Turner, and
discussion: ''The Rubber Situation in
Hawaii. 1905-1910,' paper by W. A.
Anderson. and discussions; Rubber
and the Small Farmers paper by
Doctor Wilcox; Rubber and Refor-
estation. paper by Professor Hos
mer: Tapping, F. T. P Water
house; Marketing RUBBER F. L.
Waldron; Rubber Enemies Mr.
EhrhOrn.
Wilcox and Small Farmer.
Doctor Wilcox, director of the fed
eral experiment station, made an in
feresting talk on rubber cultivation,
and principally with reference to the
ability of a man with small area to
make a livelihood while waiting for
his rubber trees to bear and the OPP
portunities to dispose of the latex to
the larger plantations. He spoke at
some length on the small farmer ques-
ton. He began by saying that in the
very first place ''we have no small
farmers in Hawaii at all. | don
know, even, that we have any farmers
here at all. They don't cali themselves
farmers here. We dom operate down
here in the Islands as they do on the
mainland.
One of the first difficulties that
meets the man in connection with rub
Der is where the best locations for rub
ber-tree growing are to be found; that
is, for planting small areas. The first
question that arises is what crop he
may raise and sell and get anything
for TO make any sort of profit, while
waiting for his trees to mature. Doe
tor Wilcox felt that a man with a
small holding of few acres must be
close to a larger plantation which IS
provided with all the machinery for
working up the latex Of course, under
such an arrangement both must make
a profit.
larger plantation does not care to use,
where man could have from five hun
dred to a thousand trees or perhaps
more Doctor Wilcox said it would be
a wild sort of scheme to suggest to
a man with four or five acres that
rubber could be made a source of in
come thereon. If a man with q small
area developed other products from
which he could make a living, then he
saw opportunities to enlarge He be
ieved however. that the operation of
4 rubber plantation, if small and not
located adjacent to larger plantation
able to take care of a product, would
not have the best results.
Doctor Wilcox was also very certain
that when the growers began to tap
the trees on a large scale it would be
necessary 10 set a standard of grade.
It is obvious that the market wants
certain kinds of rubber more than
others. If the rubber growers associa-
ton wants a rubber standard output
in Hawaii il would be necessary to ad-
here strictly to that standard. The
easiest way to destroy confidence in
the standard of rubber is to fail TO
Continued on Page Two.)