Would cotton really work as currency?

           Looking back on my first blog post, I talked about the use of cotton as a reliable form of currency. Throughout the semester in Economic Botany, i have to come to a realization that in American societies cotton may not be the best alternative. In class we have learned tons of information on plants and how they correlated with currency. One of the major concepts i have noticed, when it comes to money is that it must be consistent to thrive in societies. I do not believe cotton would be stable enough for a society to thrive with. They are many different types of cotton, therefore to use cotton as currency, you would have to label and identify every type of cotton. Also, cotton is easily grown. Everyone could start to grow their own cotton. It would be the exact same thing as counterfeit money in today's American societies. In addition, if we adopted cotton as our new form of currency, we would have to take extra precautions to keep the plants safe, and growing. Factors like natural disasters, storms, and pests could have a huge affect on cotton plants, and completely cause chaos among societies. When i started in my Economic Botany course, i did not think about all the factors that should be considered when choosing a new form of currency. Now as my course comes to an end, i realize there may be a more appropriate choice out there, to replace our current form of currency. Cotton, for now, is suitable for many other things.

Philippine Rubber Plantations Article!

                 I was browsing among numerous amounts of articles on a wonderful site called Economic Botany, when I stumbled upon an article that caught my attention. The article was called “Philippine Rubber Plantations” written by Alden Cutshall who studied at the University of Illinois, Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois.  Honestly, I must say that before reading this article I did not know that rubber was from trees. Who would have thought? Apparently, mostly all of my classmates.

                The article was about the rubber plantations in The Philippines (obviously), and it went into depth on the major aspects that surround the plantations, for example:  the size the plantations, how the rubber is collected, and Alden even went into detail about the laborers that work the plantations. Even though this Article was only about three pages, it held tons of information!  Also, remember this particular article was published in 1953!

                The first thing that caught my eye when I began to read this article was the tad bit of information directly under the title. Within that little paragraph you find out, that because of local laws land that was operated by any one source of private capital was limited to 2,500 acres.  That’s not a lot of land at all for a plantation! However, when I read this I remembered that it was written in 1953, so I began to do more research. In 2010, The Philippines had a total of 138,710 hectares (1 hectares = 2.471 acres) of rubber plantations. By 2016, they plan to raise that amount to 200,000 hectares, which is an annual increase of 10,000 acres.  Even though The Philippines plan to add more land to increase their rubber productivity, they still only account for 1.1% of the global output of rubber. Crazy to think about, huh?

                The Article also touched base on the physical and weather conditions of the island, and how they affect the rubber trees! The island itself is very hilly, and the soil lacks proper fertility. So, the island is not ideal to grow rubber on, however, they make it work. As for the temperatures, they are perfect for the trees, and the amount of rainfall that the islands receive is adequate. Even though, the island does face the factor of drought in the summer, the plants still grow and are not harmed.

Now the subject of the laborers! Without them, there would be no rubber coming from The Philippines at all. The Labor, however, is expensive compared to other countries, but you have to stop and remember that in the 1950’s, The Philippines were not the richest country out there. However, some good news: According to the 2012 Wealth Report, The Philippines is projected to be among the fastest growing economies in the world! Hopefully, that means more rubber production for them!  Even though the labor was expensive back then, the quality of the labor was considered satisfactory. Therefore the labor cost was not of much importance.

                Now for the part I had no idea about! How the “rubber” is collected/ made! The trees that the rubber comes from are “tapped” in the morning, about 7 am, the latex that is eventually turned into rubber flows faster in the mornings.  Tapping the trees is basically, when the collector makes a thin, diagonal cut to remove a sliver of bark. The milky-white latex fluid runs out of the bark and down the cut and is collected in a bucket. After about six hours, the fluid stops flowing. In that six-hour period, a tree can usually fill a gallon bucket. The tree can be tapped again with another fresh cut, usually the next day. After the rubber is collected it is then sent to the factories and made into products used daily around the world. This article was so fascinating to me; it taught me something about a product I use every day! Even after I read the article I was so anxious to research more about the plantations and where rubber comes from. I wonder what other articles I can find?!  If you want to look up some Articles for yourself, I have provided the link! Happy Reading!

http://www.springerlink.com/

Gigapan Numero Dos!

It has been a couple weeks since we last looked at our trees located within the gigapan’s we took the first time. When we went back to find our marvelous group of trees, we notice they changed! The leaves have either fallen off, or changed into pretty colors! The three species of tree I had identified in my first blog post did not look that same as before, and compared to each other they looked nothing alike. Well, except for one, the Ashe Juniper. The Ashe Juniper is an evergreen, which means it will not lose its leaves. Therefore, it looks as green and luscious as it did a few weeks ago! The other two trees, however, made quite a difference!  The American Hornbeam had lost mostly all of its leaves, and the few little guys that were still hanging on, had changed into a bright red, which is common for this specie of tree. The leaves of the American Hornbeam can change into a redish color, deep scarlet, and orange. The leaves of this tree also began to fall in autumn; therefore they are right on target! My third and final specie of tree was the Spanish Oak! The Spanish Oak’s leaves had not fallen off yet, however they were turning into and orange and red color.  The American Hornbeam and the Spanish Oak both lose their leaves because they are deciduous, which is different from the Ashe Juniper!  All the trees change/ drop their leaves at different times, because they are different types of tree species. If they were the same they would drop around the same time, however, that would be no fun! All trees are different some each other in one way or another. That’s why it’s so pretty in the fall!

Gigapan Numero Uno

             Sweet Briar campus has trees located on every section of the campus; whether you are at the Art Barn, the horse barn, or on the other side of campus near Guion. I chose to take a closer look at the trees located by Guion, which you can see in my Gigapan. That particular picture was taken near the butterfly garden. Out of all the beautiful trees I identified three different types! I identified the American Hornbeam, the Ashe Juniper, and the Spanish Oak. At this point in time, which is early October, the trees are still mostly green, with the exception of a few that stay green year round.  However, most of them will start to change soon, if they have not already. That brings up the question: Why do tree leaves change color in the fall?

The answer to this question is simple; during the winter there is not enough sunlight or water for photosynthesis to occur. So the trees will live off the food they stored during summer time.  During this time, the chemical chlorophyll disappears from the leaves, and they will eventually start to turn different colors (Even though the different colors have been located in the leaves the whole time, they were just covered by the green chlorophyll). Within the three trees I identified one tree does not change colors in the Fall/Winter. The Ashe Juniper is an Evergreen, which means photosynthesis occurs all year round, and they never run out of chlorophyll. The other two types of trees (The American Hornbeam, and the Spanish Oak) are both deciduous. Which means chlorophyll is not there year round, and the green pigment is lost in the leaves.

                

Cotton as Currency

A plant that I believe, could be used for currency in an American society today would be cotton. Cotton could be used as currency because, it is very useful to everyone and almost everyone in the world owns something that cotton is contained in. Being able to be grown very easily, Cotton would be an ideal form of currency.  In paper currency today, three/fourths of it, is made out of Cotton. So why not just make the whole thing cotton? It is so valuable across America today; it would not fail as a form of currency. Cotton is grown, and harvested each year, therefore there would never be a shortage. Society is defined as a community of people living together in a particular region and having shared customs, laws and organizations. If this is true about society, then cotton can be found in any society, whether it be in the mountains, or in the city. Therefore, with cotton already being a major product in America that is used daily, and is already located in a part of our currency system; Cotton would be a reliable and useful form of currency, in any society in America.