GREAT CLAIMS.

Shannon News, 7 October 1927, Page 3

GREAT CLAIMS.

INCREASED RUBBER PRODUCTION NEW YORK, August 21. A miracle of rubber-production —far transcending Gulliver’s “two blades of grass whore only one grew before"— is. indicated in a message from the Dutch East Indies. Some scientific students of rubber culture out there are reported to have out-Edisoned Edison. Following principles laid down by Luther Burbank, and working quietly on the plantations, they have developed a system of budgrafting by which the yield of the rubber tree can be increased fourfold. Through the application of the new scheme' (says Mr Frank R. Henderson, president of the New York Rubber, Exchange), it will be possible to* reduce the cost of crude rubber delivered in New York from the present 25 cents per lb. to less than 10 cents. Tyres, treads and surgical supplies will come down with a rush when the new method is proved efficacious.. Experiments have shown that a single tree, which ordinarily produces 31b or 41b a year, may. be made to produce. 701 b of crude rubber.

Yields from bud-grafted areas have been from; 8001 b to 50001 b an .aero, whereas, under normal- .Dig; average yield has not been more than 320 lb an acre.

Several years ago the scientists began experiments based on the assumption and assertion of Burbank that characteristics of the mother tree ai;c. carried, on by the bud. Certain exceptional trees were found to produce large amounts of-.; After exhaustive experiments, a method was found to graft successfully the buds from these most fertile growths to other trees.

The result was that trees, from which had previously trickled three or four pounds of latex into the pails of the native tappers began to pour forth whole pailfuls —reaching in some cases more than 1001 b a year.

These experiments have been carried out in the interior of the islands, and it was decided not to make the results public until all details had been worked out.