In the early 20th century, the Netherlands and England had dominance over the world’s market for rubber production with plantations in the East Indies. Although the rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis was native to the Amazon, 70,000 seedlings were taken from Brazil by Henry Wickham of England in 1876 and then brought to the East Indies for cultivation. This effectively robbed Brazil of its position as the number one exporter of rubber in the world. The dominance of Eastern rubber over world supply became especially obvious with the Britain Stevenson Plan in 1922, which attempted to establish the world price of rubber much higher than the cost of production . Because three quarters of the rubber imported into the United States was used in the automobile industry, the US government and the private sector started looking for new locations for plantations to bypass the unfair prices set by the British.
The start of Fordlandia Henry Ford was one of the business owners most interested in finding an alternate location to grow rubber trees. Influenced by a 1923 United States government survey that named the Amazon as an ideal location for producing rubber, Henry Ford commissioned his own independent study of the Tapajos River valley in 1926. On July 21, 1927 he was given a free land concession of one million hectares (2.5 million acres) along the Tapajos River with a deal that he was to pay 7% of his annual profits to the Brazilian government and 2% of annual profits to local municipalities after 12 years of operation. It was initially estimated that when the plantation was under full cultivation, it would produce enough rubber to make tires for 2,000,000 automobiles a year. An early problem at Fordlandia was the Amazon’s heavy rains that washed out the nutrient-rich soil needed for growing the rubber trees. Extensive terracing was needed to prevent flooding on the cleared land. Fordlandia was also plagued with other troubles, such as drought during the dry season and diseases and insects that attacked the trees. Among the attackers were a deadly leaf fungus and pests such as sauva ants, lace bugs, red spiders, and leaf caterpillars. The early troubles of Fordlandia partly had to do with the fact that the plantation was under the supervision of Ford factory-trained men rather than horticultural specialists. By 1933, after years of trouble with leaf diseases and pests, it was clear that changes were needed. Ford hired Dr. James Weir, a plant pathologist, who after a survey of the surrounding land suggested a new property eighty miles downstream from Fordlandia. The new plantation, Belterra, was established at the site. As Henry Wickham had originally spirited away rubber tree seedlings from Brazil half a century earlier, Weir obtained 2,046 buddings from high-producing trees in the Far East and brought them back to Brazil to start growing at Belterra. Weir founded a research laboratory and nursery at Belterra to experiment with producing high-yielding and disease-resistant strains of rubber.
Fordlandia was not abandoned, but the major operations of the plantation were transferred to Belterra. By 1940, 500 employees were working at Fordlandia while 2,500 employees were working at Belterra. During World War II, the rubber supply was cut off from the Far East, harming the US government’s wartime need for tire production. The Ford plantations continued to produce rubber, but a leaf disease epidemic and additional labor problems made producing a reliable supply of rubber difficult. By the time the war ended and the Far Eastern rubber plantations were opened again, Ford did not see the need to keep the Brazilian plantations open. For a mere $250,000, Ford gave up its rubber interests in the Amazon to the Brazilian government. The plantations were put under the control of the Brazilian Northern Agronomical Institute, and the legacy of Ford in the jungle was brought to an end. http://www.thehenryford.org/research/rubberPlantations.aspx

The most widely used alphabet is called the Latin alphabet, the standard script of most languages that originated in Europe. It developed before 600 BC from the Etruscan alphabet (in turn derived from the North Semitic alphabet by way of the Phoenician and Greek alphabets). The earliest known Latin inscriptions date from the 7th – 6th cent. BC. The classical Latin alphabet had 23 letters, 21 derived from the Etruscan. In medieval times the letter J became differentiated from I, and U and W became differentiated from V, producing the 26-letter alphabet of modern English. In ancient Roman times there were two types of Latin script, capital letters and cursive. Uncial script, mixing both types, developed in the 3rd century AD. http://www.answers.com/topic/latin-alphabet

drumlin (DRUM-lin) noun
A long, narrow, whale-shaped hill of gravel, rock, and clay debris, formed by the movement of a glacier. From Irish druim (back, ridge) + -lin, a variant of -ling (a diminutive suffix, as in duckling).
esker (ES-kuhr) noun
A long, narrow ridge of gravel and sand deposited by a stream flowing in or under a retreating glacier. From Irish eiscir (ridge of gravel).
fjord or fiord (fyord) noun
A long, narrow inlet of the sea, bordered by steep cliffs, and carved by glacial action.
From Norwegian fjord, from Old Norse. Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (to lead, pass over), which also gave us support, comport, petroleum, sport, passport, colporteur (a peddler of religious books), Swedish fartlek (a training technique), rapporteur, and Sanskrit parvat (mountain).
cirque (suhrk) noun
1. A bowl-shaped semicircular mountain basin carved by glacial erosion. Also called cwm.
2. A ring; a circle.
Via French from Latin circus (circle). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to turn or bend) which is also the source of other words such as ranch, rank, shrink, circle, crisp, search, ring, curb, ridge, curve, and circa.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

THOUGHTS FROM LYNNE
Right now is the time to freeze fresh herbs for winter while they are cheap and prime. Just wash them well, drain well, strip leaves into heavy-duty plastic bags, press out all the air and seal. Rosemary and thyme can be frozen right on their branches. To use, don't defrost, just break off what you need.
The Splendid Table August 11, 2010

I am heading to Oregon and Washington State for a vacation and will be back by the end of the month.