The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-09-30

SeAAAGdA w n6A the nuts are rps LDc shells burst with noise like a fre-
 cracker, throwing them far and wide
 about the tree. There are so many nuts
 on each tree that man could gather
 enough in day to plant 100 acres of land. It takes, however, from 15 to 20
 years for wild tree of the Amazon for
 est to produce rubber, and so far no
 plantations of any importance have been set out in that region.
 Up until about seven years ago prac-
 tlcally all of the worlds supply of crude rubber came from the Amazon. It was
 gathered by Indians, some of whom
 were debt slaves Immigrants were
 also brought in from other parts of
 Brazil, and groups of natives were sent
 up the river during the wet season to
 gather the rubber when the dry season
 came. Much of the work was done by contract labor, and a large percentage of the men died in the forests.
 The means of gathering the sap and turning 1t into rubber were crude to an extreme, and the trees were often de-
 stroyed by bad tapping. The rubber I made was from trees which I gashed
 with hatchet. the blade of which was
 about two inches wide. put tin cup
 under each gash and the next day went
 from tree to tree and brought in half
 a gallon of milk. then came back to
 the camp and smoked the rubber as the
 Brazilians directed. I made a fire of
 palm nuts in the corner of shed, un-
 der little clay chimney. This caused
 dense smoke, Into which I thrust a
 wooden paddle had dipped in the sap.
 The paddle came out coated with milk
 l turned 1t rapidly about in the smoke and the rubber hardened upon 1t. I
 again thrust 1t into the bowl for a
 fresh coat of milk. which I hardened
 the same way. and thus went on until
 l had built up layer after layer of rub
 Der on my paddle. The smoke came
 into my eyes. I wept almost as many
 tears as there were drops of milk in the bowl and finally. having made an
 ounce or so of rubber. handed the job
 over to the professionals, They added
 to the layers until they finally built up
 rubber lump as large as football. It
 was much like well smoked 25-
 pound ham, and when cut open the in-
 side seemed very like cheese It is in
 the shape of these hams that most of
 the rubber from the Amazon comes. It Is gathered In this rude way from camps scattered over vast territory and the organization Of the business is such that the crop Is greatly re- stricted.
 Today the world demand for rubber has so increased that the wilds of the Amazon could not possibly supply 1t. The Brazilians are pushing their work
 to the full. but their product is only about one-fourth of the rubber that
 comes Into the market. The balance, or three-fourths of the whole, Is from rubber plantations which have been set out on the Malay peninsula and in Cey1on and Sumatra. We are now starting plantations in the Philippines, and there is one of 100000 trees there on the Island of Basilan not far from Mfndanao.
 The cultivated rubber Is steadily in- creasing in quantity, and I am told that 1t will continue to keep pace with the demand. At the end of last year there were almost 100000 acres of cultivated rubber trees, and many new plantations are being set out. Some of the largest
 rubber companies of the United States are preparing to grow their own rub Der. There Is one in New England that ! has three plantations In Sumatra, com prising 100000 acres. It has A,00O of these already planted: and in 1915 1t gathered
 more than 100000 pounds of rubbe CT from | the 15,000 acres of trees that had come into bearing. The president of another I of our great rubber companies has ad- vised his stockholders that he can pro- | duce rubber on their Sumatra planta- tions at a cost of II cents a pound, and that 15 per cent of their crude rubber | needs will be taken care of this year from their own plantations. Next year they expect to increase this product 10 | 25 per cent and by 1921 they will be raising half of all the rubber they use | There Is a big rubber company here l in Akron, which makes all sorts of goods that has just bought 2l,000 acres of land in Sumatra, and another. devoted only to tires. will set out large plantations l in southern Asia for the same purpose l Another American company has $10,oo0 900 invested in rubber estates. It has | 14,000 employees on them, and all but 200 of these receive a salary of 15 cents a day. When 1t is remembered that the lowest wage paid "a common laborer in Akron Is 37 cents an hour the difference | in conditions between Asia and tho Uni- ted States may be appreciated. The Asi- atic rubber coolie works 10 hours or moro per day. He gest a cent and a half an hour while the poorest of the Akron rubber laborers gets more than 20 times
 as much.
 i The most of the rubber plantations belong to the British and they con-
 trol the supply of plantation rubber l through their possession of the East
 Indies. This is the reason why, up to
 the beginning of the war in Europe
 London was the worlds greatest rub
 Der market, practically all the crude rubber being carried in British ships. In fact, England can dictate to the
 world how much rubber each country