Evening star., 1943-10-24

! Not long after he was sent here by
| the Department of Agriculture in Wash
| ington-il the first instance to advise
| the White engineering company on agri-
cultural problems-Thomas E. Fennell,
expert on tropical plant life, reached
the conclusion that a productive enter
prise and not mere road building was
essential. That was in 1899. The result
is the cryptostegia project which is
Fennells baby
With remarkable zeal and enthusiasm
he has pushed it through, working al
ways with President Ellie Lescot and
the men around him. AS symbol of
the friendly relationship that exists
Lescot spent the past week in Washing
ton AS guest of President Roosevelt.
With Lescot's cooperation, Fennell
organized Haitian company with long
title, the initials of which spell Shada
On Shada'S board are three Haitians and
three Americans. Fennell is president
The money comes from the rubber di-
rectors Office in Washington. And all
of the rubber will 60 automatically to
the rubber director.
Serious Problem.
AS Fennell himself is perfectly well
aware, 1t is a precarious thing to cut
boldly across an ancient, almost primi-
tive society with anything as big-given
the sale of Haiti-as Shada. For all
but or per cent of Haitis aristo-
cratic elite, with a strong admiXture Of
French blood and consequently lighter
skins, life here has changed but little
since the day that Columbus discovered
this part of the world.
1t Is perfectly good going society,
based on the habit patterns brought
by the ancestors of the present day
HaltlanS from Africa. Land is widely
owned III small plots that produce food
and shelter with enough left over to
trade for minimum clothing and a little
store food While syphilis, yaWs and
malaria are widespread, the Haitian
peasant has a sturdy resistance and he
has many advantages over the Amer
lean slum dWeller, among them being
sun, fresh air, beautiful countryside
and freedom from time clocks
Trying to upset this pattern as little
as possible, Fennell has put $4,000 to
10000 Haitians to work for wages. The
minimum wage is 30 cents day the
going wage 36 cents By hand IS 900
acres have thus far been planted with
an average OF $500 seedlings planted
to the acre. The waving stems OF the
FC4o
with aid of tapping device developed
here. Then the latex is coagulated with
water, kncaded by hand and rolled
by hand between iron rollers.
AS with rubber production on the
plantations Of the Far East. before the
Japs' conquest, if labor were not so
plentiful and SO cheap the cryptostegia
technique would obviously be impossible.
While it is still, in a sense in an ey-
perlmental stage. Fennell has no doubt
that rubber in volume will come out
toward the end of next year. Cryptos-
tegia as a source of raw rubber has
been attacked, particularly in certain
American newspapers, but Fennell be-
lleveS 1t has never been given a fair
test in the tropics.
Wide Range of Estimates.
Price is, of course. another matter.
A commission sent here a year ago
to investigate the possibilities of the
cryptostegia project reported the rubber
would cost s1.53 a pound. For COM
paISon the price of plantation rubber
from the Far East in the preWar period
averaged about 20 cents pound Fen
nell and the experts working with him
both Haitian and American-sav the
cost will be between 60 and rs cents
pound, depending on the number of
pounds produced per acre. Fennell be-
lieVes the average will be around 300
pounds. Others are not so optimistic.
To get 100000 acres into cryptostegia
that is l-64th of the total land area
and far higher proportion of the
productive land since Haiti has con-
siderable deSert-it has been necessary
(See HAITI, Page C-3D