Abstract
A great deal has been published during the past three years regarding the various sources of natural rubber which have been called upon to supplement this nation's stockpile and to meet those special needs for which commercial synthetic rubbers are not entirely satisfactory. We have read of wild rubbers being brought in under great difficulty from Central and South America; of the 32,000 acres of guayule grown by the government, largely in California, and now nearly ready for harvest; and of the large experimental plantings of Cryptostegia in Haiti. Almost nothing, however, has appeared regarding a plant which is known to be potentially rich in high-grade rubber and which has been extensively cultivated outside this country. This is the Russian dandelion, or Taraxacum kok-saghyz. In the course of a systematic investigation instituted in Russia in 1929 to determine the possibilities of producing natural rubber in that country, the kok-saghyz was found near Tien Shan, Kazakstan, near the border of China. By 1932 more than 2,000 acres of this plant were under cultivation in Russia, and it is reported that at the time of the German invasion of Russia approximately 200,000 acres of kok-saghyz had been planted for the production of rubber.