The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1931-04-03
CALFORMANS ARE
FOLLOWING ADVICE
OF THOMAS EDISON
GuayuIe, Form Of Sagebrush
From Which Rubber Is Made,
Being Harvested
PRODUCT HAS MANY USES
5000 Acres Under Cultivation
Should Produce 800 Tons
Of Rubber Annually

0dllIldS, NdlAA., APIA NANGSAI
Thomas EdiSon'S dream-dome6ti(
production Of crude rubber Of a quail
ity and price that completes with the
foreign products being realized in
Salinas valley, seven miles north OF
here.
Four hours after a load Of
g~uayule, a form of sagebrush, enters
the plant of the American Rubber
Products Company. it emerges IN the
form of 2OO-pound blocks of rubber,
The product is not a rubber Substi-
tute, but a pure gum rubber suitable
for use as automobile tires and tubes
Or for any Of the multitude of uses to
which rubber is put.
Experiments in guayule rubber date
back more than Is years. In 1905
the .Intercontinental Rubber Com
pany, of which the local firm is q
subsidiary. sent its chief botanist. DR..
w. B. McCallum. into Mexico to test
the feasibility of producing rubber
from the wild guayule plant.
In 1910 81 million pounds OF qua
vule rubber were produced In sew
eral Mexican factories. 10 per cent
of this being used for American
consumption. To date some 60,00O,-
600 pounds have been produced and
used.
Experiments in DEMONSTRATING the
wild shrub in Texas, California and
elsewhere were started as early as
1910. After several years McCallum
hit upon Salinas valley as the logt-
cal site for operations on q large
scale.
Can he Cultivated
Intercontinental satisfied itself
that guayule could be grown In this
soil and climate. It also proved the
shrub would thrive under domestica-
ton, thus eliminating the hit-and-
miss method of seeking the shrub
wild on the Mexican desert.
The original experimental tract OF
500 acres expanded until today over
5000 are under cultivation. It Is fig
ured these will produce q yield of T.
4O0, 900 pounds of crude rubber every
four years. or 100000 pounds each
harvest season.
Process Of producing guayule Is by
no means secret. 1t requires four
a for the plants to reach matur-
ity at which time the plant contains
from IA to II per cent rubber. At
harvesting time it Is up-rooted to q
depth Of nine inches, spread and left
to dry in the field.
As the moisture recedes from the
plant, a specially devised shaker"
passes through the rows shaking out
dirt and foreign substances.
Another special machine. resemb-
ling a grain harvester, gathers the
plants, chops them to small bits
which are blown into q trailer. TAX
en- to the mill nearby the shrub Is
ground up under water, in large roll
ing ball mills. the grinding being done
by flint pebbles rubbing against rub
Der.
Pressed Into Cakes
The produce Is then run into set
Ting tanks where the rubber. being
lighter than water, floats to the sur
face and is skinned off. The wood
fiber becomes waterlogged and sinks.
The rubber is then dried in ovens and
pressed into 200-pound cakes ready
for the manufacture OF tires or into
other rubber products.
There is nothing new or mysteri-
Gus about guayule," says George H.
Carnahan, president of the Intercon-
tinental Rubber Company and de-
veloper Of the present continuous"
system of producing rubber from
guayule.
Improved methods of extraction
and preparation have kept 1t second
or the list of commercial rubber
producing plants. but up to this year
its supply has been limited by ma
lures slow and unaided reproductive
process.
only domestication and CONNER
cial cultivation IN the United States
is new. Then, too, it has taken 20
years of painstaking and intensive
research to isolate from the 1000 or
more species Of guayule the six or
seven varieties which carry the high
est rubber percentage"
Small Part In Big Industry
Carnahan explained that America
consumes 81 per cent Of all the rub
Der produced in the world. some
1000, OOO, 900 pounds in the raw state.
OF this 81 per cent Is used in the
manufacture of automobile tires and
tubes.
The plant at Salinas is capable Of
delivering $1,000 pounds Of rubber
daily in its dry form, which. while
only q drop in the bucket as COM
pared to the world consumption, at
least Is q starter In Americas indie
fendence on the rubber mart.
Asked, How can you produce rub
Der in the United States with It's II.
Dor costs 30 high in comparison with
the East Indies where coolies can b
hired for 40 cents . day?" Carnahau
said:
Tree rubber requires harvesting
100 times . year. 0uayule rubber re-
CURES harvesting once every four
years. There = approximately the
same amount Of rubber produced
from an acre Of tree rubber g there
Is from m acre at gusyule rubber
In the same period Of time. with
the development Of machinery and
skilled labor Ne ere producing rub
Der IN aetivo competition with TIL
eogts~
STl(kEhS