MACHINE-MADE RUBBER

Evening Star, Issue 16987, 8 March 1919, Page 5

MACHINE-MADE RUBBER

<. Not artificial rubber, made by machinery, but natural rubber, planted, gathered, and extracted by machinery as the Kiigar beet or any other similar .-nip is handled. A py.st.emat.isod and domesticated rubber crop was predicted long ago; ruid now thsuccess of tho experiments with the guayulo shrub onsmw this very thing, we are told editorially by the, • JndiariVnher World' (New York). 'Great areas of thi.< rubber-bearing plant, hitherto known onlv in the wild state, are now being planted, cultivated, and harvested bv motor-drawn machines. Thus, not only are desert lands utilised in American territoiy and in a climate ideal for white men, but the voxod questions of kind costs, revolutions, and tropical dis';a:-e.s are wholly absent. '['ho labor problem is almost> eliminated. The writer goes on : "An Ameri'-ar-grown rubber, with no overseas hf.-ldicaps, exposed to no marine dangers, free fiom import or ex port tax3s. i.naflectod by prieo-tixing by rubber planters' associations, unafraid of valorisation, is almo'-t ioo good to be true. Were it not war timo there, would be a likelihood of another rubber craze, once tho prospective profits of guavule cultivation were known. For example, a comparison of hevea and guayuie profits at the tim-e of tho historic rubber craze would He ahout as follows, and is sta.-t---ling : —Hevea then brought 2do! a pound, and the profit was about 40<ldo] an acre. 0 nay hie then so id for Idol a pound, and. cultivated, would show a profit of more than. 16,00Gd0l ]-er acre. Or, basing the comparison upon today's costs and price* Jiovea profits would stand at, fay, 136d0l an' acre, and cultivated guavule at over 6,000d0l an acre "These figures, to be sure, do not inclrde tho cost of installing tlie pUntatio.i plant, extraction 'plant, natent royalties, etc. But cutting thorp, in half to cover these items, theie remains a profit of J.COOdol an aero, which is astounding in deed, and almost unbelievable. '' They are also onlv generally illustrative, as the two problems differ in ma> v details. For cxainpk, a four-year-old li«vea tree -oxeduces, say. two pounds of lubber, and when matured it produce-* much more. A lon r-y ear-old guava'e shrub gives at its heft two pounds of rubber, and that is if« maximum. There is, however, the important fact to be kept before those who plan to start in this line. It is a far mora intricate business than hevea growir.g, and lack of knowledge 'n a dozen different will ,-pe![ disaster. There is also the high cost of installation of tho plantation and extraction factory. To prepare, irrigate, and plant enough land to keen a 10-ton mill going would cost, ronu'hlv SOO.OOOdoI, ant', tho mill at least 200.000d01. 'in other words, it is a million-dollar undertaking, and tho small operator lias no gieat chanco. With tho expansion of the business, however, it -is possible that central factories will ship their prc.d-.ict for extraction, and that giuyulo growers will ship their product Hi as tho bcetp.'ot growers, do theirs t> the sugar centrals. "As to the giaile of rubber produced plant analysis has found certain types of shrub that carry a high grade of rubber, and these have bet-n hybridised wth plants that contein percentages of 20 per cent, or more of rubber. A better grade of gum than the Mexican product is therefore 'n prospect in the uiliivat-ed guayulo rubber, some day to figure largely in cur markets."