“WINNING THE RUBBER”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 141, 5 September 1927, Page 16

“WINNING THE RUBBER”

EDISON OUT-EDISONED YIELDS GREATLY INCREASED A miracle of rubber-production—far ranscending Gulliver’s “two blades of grass where only one grew before”— is indicated in a message from the Dutch East Indies. Some scientific students of rubberculture 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 bud-grafting 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 a 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 5,0001 b an acre, whereas, under normal conditions, the average yield has not been more than 3201 b an acre. Several years ago the scientists began experiments based on the assumption and assertion of Burbank that characteristics of the mother tree are carried on by the bud. Certain exceptional trees were found to produce large amounts of rubber. 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 on in the interior of the islands, and it was decided not to make the results public until all details had been worked out.