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Show the pasture milkweed, and the greatest, the mammoth Hev'ea Brazilicn'sis tree. Xot infrequeutlv the latter attains a height of 120 feet and from this huge specimen we get 'Latex' or eoagulents of Fine Para. "The words 'India rubber' were first applied to that substance bv the Indians In-dians of the Amazon valley called 'L'ahuehu.' Obviously, our name 'Caoutchous ' is derived from the native na-tive tongue, and in many localities it has come to be looked upon as denoting denot-ing the pure uncommercialized product. "Another erroneous impression exists that 'wild' rubber is superior to 'plantation' 'plan-tation' or cultivated rubber. At this time approximately 75 per cent of the rubber imported into the United States and 79 per cent of the world's production produc-tion is obtained from well kept cultivated culti-vated trees. " Wild rubber is often too dirtv and varies greatly in quality and shrinkage, while plantation rubbe'rs are generally clean, of uniform quality and consequently conse-quently of little or no shrinkage. "In this connection it is interesting to note that it is highly probable that were the United States for any reason to be cut off from its supplies "of crude rubber, the product could be obtained locally. There are plants in California Califor-nia containing 2. 3, 7 and 10 per cent of rubber, .and this means millions of pounds. The California council of defense de-fense is already investigating the situation sit-uation exhaustively and their final report re-port will interest the whole world. "The rubber supply of the world has scarcely been touched. As- soon as Lncle Sam has returned our ships to us, when the war is over, it appears to be quite within the bounds of reason to expect that we will be developing rubber rub-ber from the sap right in these United States and at the same time bringing it from over the seas in larger quan" titles than ever before." U. S. TIRE MAN TELLS HISTOrM RUBBER Describes How and Where It Grows; No Shortage Threatened. Id spite of the fact that the rubber Indu&try has developed so remarkably that today it not only rauks as one of . the most important industries in the world, an essential factor in, the winning 01 the war, and an indispensable indispensa-ble element in every household, there is declared to exist an amazing lack of knowledge on the part of the general public, concerning its source and supply. sup-ply. The last few weeks have seen hnn-jreds hnn-jreds of columns of newspaper and . magazine space used to record the action ac-tion of the government in restricting the importation of crude rubber. In some cases this has led to an erroneous belief that the government's action was due to a threatened, scarcity of the f?aw product. Others have been led to believe that the federal action will necessarily nec-essarily result in a serious shortage of crude rubber. As a matter of fact, ; each opinion is evidently far from cor- i rect inasmuch as it has been stated positivelv hy some of those high in authority au-thority ttat the restriction on importation importa-tion is simply another means of obtain-1 ing more sliips for transportation of munitions and men. to war-ridden France. "The United States Rubber company of Akron, Ohio, for years an important manufacturer of rubber products, is doing do-ing its utmost to enlighten the general pnolic concerning the rubber situation as it really exists," says Sid Theobald, local branch, manager. "There is no imminent danger of a rubber shortage, either in the countries where it is grown or as a result of the government's restriction on importation, importa-tion, " reads a statement just issued by the United States company. "In these hot, rainy climates .of dense humidity where rubber trees thrive, there seems no end to the source of supply. The same situation exists in practically all of the rubber producing countries South America, Central America, Mexico, Africa and the Indo Malay regions. "The varieties of trees, shrubs, plants and vines which discharge the rubber sap are numbered in the hundreds. One ' of the smallest and most common is |