Show Rubber Rubber- Trees gees Grow GlOW in Florida At USDA's s Experiment Station A High Yield Plants Are Developed for South 1 American PI Plantations Long before this war began the department of agriculture experts were experimenting with rubber plants at an experimental station near Miami Fla working with some acres of rubber-producing rubber plants and trees Today all that work is paying paying paying pay pay- ing off Through a scientific method method method meth meth- od of grafting developed by these experiments the yield of a rubber tree has been multiplied from seven to ten times The normal yield of ofa a single tree is three pounds of latex The grafting process has increased increased increased in in- creased this yield to from 21 to 30 pounds However the Miami station is not nota a rubber plantation It is merely a nursery where agronomists graft the buds and bud sticks to sturdy stock and on 1 nurture them V om until rl ready v for w r This sapling was top budded or 1 grafted toward the top of the tree rather than near the bottom as is ismore ismore ismore more customary This picture was taken only six weeks after the grafting grafting grafting graft graft- ing but already strong shoots have sprouted from the buds transplanting They are then shipped to plantations in Central and South America where they mature in time to yield enough rubber per tree for two auto tires every year The Miami station is now turning out saplings annually To be sure of getting high grade stock the thc scientists at the station raise the young rubber plants of several species from seeds These seedlings must be grown in hothouses hothouses hothouses hot hot- houses because even the Florida climate is not warm and wet enough for these tropical plants in their early stages Cuttings from the young plants are placed in cutting boxes a method method method meth meth- od which speeds up propagation tremendously tremendously tremendously tre tre- tre- tre for each piece takes root and becomes a plant These are set setout setout setout out in the nursery where they grow for several years until they reach the sapling stage At the proper time slips from trees of known high sap ap yield and resistance to disease r ar L. L 4 Y 4 l Here are arc saplings a year or two after the grafting The host or original tree has been cut off ofT so that all the strength goes into the shoot are grafted to the young trees When the grafted tree becomes old enough to stand transplanting it is carefully dug up and packed for shipment to a rubber plantation in south or central America According to Dr Earl N. N Bressman Bressman Bressman Bress- Bress man director of the newly established established established Inter-American Inter Institute of Agricultural Sciences at Turrialba Costa Rica the product grown in inthe inthe inthe the Americas can survive competition tion of synthetic rubber and rubber grown outside the Western Vestern hemi hemi- sphere Dr Bressman predicted production of crude rubber at 10 cents a pound and said that synthetic synthetic synthetic syn syn- types would run from 30 to 40 cents a pound tI r k ri I Tests must be made on the quality of rubber being produced by the trees and vines which are allowed to grow to maturity as controls The picture shows raw rubber The sap of a Madagascar 1 vine was allowed to drip onto a piece of linoleum and dry Pure rubber is extremely elastic elastic elastic elas elas- tic and stringy |