15. RUBBER INDUSTRY IN LATIN AMERICA. Latin America holds the cradle of the rubber industries of the world, in the southwestern section of the great basin of the Amazon, where the ((black hevee is at its best, and Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador share in providing its most favored habitat. It was from this region that the first specimens of rub ber were sent to Paris by a scientific expedi tion in 1736. It should be remembered,• how ever, that historical mention of the use of rub ber among the native Indians of that country had been made 200 years before, but without attracting serious attention. Although the rub ber production of the Amazon basin has been for the last few years overshadowed by the yield of the great rubber plantations of the East, the seeds, plants and stumps with which those plantations were established came from the Amazon and to-day the Amazonian hevea evea Brasiliensis) occupies 1,500,000 acres in Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, the Malay Peninsula, southern India, Borneo and Burma. Notwith standing even these widespread enterprises in cultivated rubber, the fact remains that the most remarkable rubber producing region of the world lies in the valley of the Amazon. It extends from the Atlantic Ocean on the east to the southern boundary of Colombia on the west, a distance of 3,000 miles. This valley, perhaps 200 miles across at the Atlantic end, broadens toward the south until it is 1,500 miles across, comprising a total area of about 2,400,000 square miles. By far the greater part of this territory in Brazil, but parts of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia are in cluded. Practically the whole region is cov ered with forests, and it is estimated that hardly more than 5 per cent of this vast area has been exploited by the rubber gatherers.
In the larger survey, however, Latin Amer ica contributes to the markets of the world six different kinds of rubber from as many differ ent species of plants. Their market names and sources are as follows: Para rubber—obtained from several varieties of Ham, chiefly H. Brasiliensis, though usually a mixture, sometimes containing rubber from sapiam Tablas, and, separately, that from Mimandio siPhonioides; produced in the states of Para and Amazonas, the government province of Acre and the states of Maranhao and the northern parts of Matto Grosso and Goya:, of Brazil; and in Peru. Ecuador, Bolivia and southeastern Colombia.
Ceara. or Manitoba rubber, also Ceara scrap — obtained from several species of Manlike!, mainly M. Glasiorii and
M. die/lama; produced in northeastern Brazil, chiefly in the state of Ceara.
Colombia Vixen', or Cartagena scrap — obtained from several species of sa psum, mainly S. Tolimense and S. serum produced in Peru. Colombia, Venezuela, British Guiana, and localities in Central America.
Mangabeira, or Bahia rubber, and Matto-Grosso sheets obtained from Hatszonsia speciosa; widely distributed throughout Brasil, but collected chiefly in the states of Bahia, Pernambuco and Matto-Grosso. and to some extent in Minas Gemes„ Goya:. and Sao Paulo.
Caucho rubber, Mexican strips, Centrals, etc.— from species of Cosfilloa, principally C. Ulei in Peru and Ecuador, and C. dastias in southern Mexico. Costa Rica. Ni Honduras, Salvador and Guatemala. and in Trinidt Tobago.
Guayule rubber — obtained from the shrub Parthenimn armalateim; prtiduced in northern Mexico.
In the Amazonian Basin, where Para rubber originates, there are three districts in which rubber gathering is active, all lying south of. the river and along its southern tributaries: (1) The island section, including the numerous islands forming the Amazonian delta and yield ing what is commonly termed "island rubber"; (2) a district in the neighborhood of Manaos, including the lower reaches of the Rio Purus and the Rio Jurua and a part of the Rio Ne gro; (3) the upland districts of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. The product of all these dis tricts is known as wild Para rubber, that of the "Up-river" country (above Manaos) being gen erally "hard cure," and that from the more easterly sections, "soft cure." The wild Para rubber of the Amazon Valley is regarded as the best raw rubber supplied to the world's mar kets. Its excellence is attributed by some au thorities to a probable mixing of the saps of several different trees, but by the resident rub ber gatherers the superior quality is declared to be due to the soil and climate of the region, which are not duplicated in any of the sections where the same varieties of rubber-producing trees are cultivated in plantations. Whatever the true reason, the industrial fact is that man ufacturers hold that the wild Para rubber of the Amazon is absolutely dependable as to quality, while "plantation Para" needs a cer tain amount of manipulation before it can be worked through the processes commonly em ployed with unvarying success for wild Para.