44 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[OcTour.R 1, 1916. 



to look at these propositions from a purely business point of 

 view. The political question is one for statesmen. When it 

 looks as if such sales might be harmful to national interests, it 

 is for statesmen to step in and make such rules and regulations 

 as are thought to be necessary. A rubber plantation remains 

 British as long as it is on British soil, and is thus under the 

 control of the British Government. The capital may be fiireigu. 

 but the produce is here, and its disposal is thus under Britisli 

 control. There is plenty of German money in rubber plantations, 

 l)ut this does not help Germany to get rubber at the present time. 



A recent report on the Federated Malay States showed that ai 

 the end of 1915 the total area of rubber estates of more than a 

 hundred acres in extent was nearly 500,000 acres, of which the 

 producing area was about 281,130 acres, an increase of nearly 

 66,000 acres on the previous year. The amount of rubber ex- 

 ported was 44,523 tons, of an estimated value of $93,660,621 (the 

 local dollar is worth 2s. 4d.). This was an increase of nearly 

 14.000 tons compared with 1914 and it is estimated that this year 

 about 60,000 tons will be exported. It is to be noted that this is 

 from the Federated Malay States alone, and there is an apiirc- 

 ciable production in tlie Straits Settlements also. 



Considerable connncnt has been aroused by a statement by a 

 correspondent in a London financial paper to the effect that plant- 

 ers are taking advantage of the present abnormal times, when es- 

 tate staffs are reduced to a minimum on account of so many men 

 having joined the army, to try and force the hands of directors. 

 It is alleged that they are sticking out for big increases in salary 

 and highly favorable agreements under threat of throwing the 

 work up, if their demands are not complied with. Correspond- 

 ents have not been slow in taking up the cudgels on the other 

 side, and on behalf of the planters it is pointed out that those 

 who have stayed behind rather than accompany their comrades 

 home to join up, would usually much rather be fighting than 

 planting, and if all the men who wanted to go had gone, a good 

 many estates would have come to a standstill. 



Tt may be that some have asked for increased pay, but then, in 

 a good many cases they are doing double work, which was not 

 specified in agreements. Again, it must be remembered that 

 before the war directors had things very much their own way. 

 It was easy to get men with no previous experience to act as 

 assistants on estates at a cheap wage, with 'the consequence that 

 the rates of pay tended to go down, and often at the end of a 

 four years' agreement, a man, if he was unable to get the man- 

 agerrvent of an estate, found himself on the same level as a new 

 man brought out frojn home, who had never seen a rubber tree 

 liefore. The war is making a great many changes. If it renders 

 cheap white labor an impossibility in tlie future it will have done 

 one good thing. 



RUBBER ADULTERATED WITH STARCH. 



BJ. EATON, chemist of the Department of Agriculture of 

 • the Federated Malay States, reports in the "Agricultural 

 Bulletin of the Federated Malay States" on a curious case of 

 adulteration of rubber. 



A peculiar specimen of rubber was received by Mr. Eaton from 

 tb.e Secretary of the Johore Planters' .Association. It consisted 

 of a thin sheet resembling a piece of drab-colored leather or 

 hide. The rubber was easily torn and had a pure white interior, 

 resembling flour. On examination the sample was found to 

 contain a large quantity of starch, which was probably tapioca 

 starch. It was found impo.ssible to estimate the starch by wash- 

 ing it out on the crepeiug machine, the rulilier refusing to cohere 

 on the machine and becoming a mass of crumbs, the particles 

 being washed thri)Ugli the sieves and lost. By boiling the rubber 

 in dilute hydrochloric acid and subsequently in pure water and 

 by crepeing it on a small experimental crepeing machine with licit 

 water, a fairly coherent sample was obtained, which could be 

 .subsequently creped and washed with cold water on an ordinary 



factory crepeing machine and converted into a thin crepe on a 

 factory sheeting machine. Even after this treatment the rublier 

 resembled lace and was very weak. The loss on treatment, 

 which probably consisted almost entirely of starch, was 50.9 per 

 cent. 



It bad been previously reported to Mr. Faton that starch, in 

 tile form of tapioca or sago, which is easily obtainable locally, 

 was probably used by contractors' tapping coolies on estates 

 where contract tapping exists. The managers of such estates 

 I ay on the wet weight of rubber collected, making an allowance 

 for the water content of the sheet of rubber obtained, the sheets 

 being weighed some time after being machined and hung to drain. 

 If starch be used as an adulterant, it absorbs a large proportion 

 of water and the manager pays not only for the added starch, 

 but for water, since the wet sheets, on drying, lose much more 

 weight than would normally be allowed for. The sample re- 

 ported on was, however, the first in which starch had been dis- 

 covered, although two suspected samples from another estate 

 were received some time ago, in which no starch was found. 



Mr. Eaton believes that the large amount of starch found in 

 this sample, which was taken from a parcel of rubber from 

 Johore consigned to Singapore and sold at the auctions there by 

 a Chinese, would suggest that the adulterant was deliberately 

 added for selling purposes. 



This inforination should be a warning to planters who use 

 contract tappers to look out for adulteration of this nature. It 

 would probably be easily detected in sheet rubber when dry, but 

 not in crepe, since the starch would probably be almost entirely 

 removed on the crepeing machine, when fresh coagulum is 

 washed. 



Mr. Eaton suggests the use of the standard test for identifying 

 the presence of starch, which is to add a few drops of a dilute 

 solution of iodine to the suspected sample of rubber or latex, 

 wlien a blue color will be produced. 



[In connection with this report it is interesting to refer to the 

 ancient practice of adulterating Brazilian rubber with flour or 

 farinha, which is described at length in "The Rubber Country 

 of the Amazon," by Henry C. Pearson. 



In Para, the principal rubber market of Brazil, rubber houses 

 employ a very capable body of men, who receive the rubber, cut 

 and examine it, and pack it in boxes for .shipment. The cut- 

 ting of the rubber, he says, "is an absolute necessity, as some 

 lots are badly adulterated. This adulteration takes three forms : 

 In one, a substance, tabatiiiga, is added to the late.x, giving a 

 short-fibered rubber that is wholly without nerve. The second 

 is the addition of farinha. which increases bulk and weight, and 

 also makes the rubber very short and pasty. The third is a mix- 

 ture of sand and farinha, which is, perhaps, the worst of all." 



Mr. Pearson, in this book, tells us that the adulteration of fine 

 Para by the addition of farinha was reported by Herndon as far 

 back as the early '50s. "The gatherer does not put the farinha 

 in altogether for the sake of adding weight ; its presence causes 

 a quicker coagulation, and if he gets a little too much he adds a 

 little lemon juice and is able to produce exceedingly smooth 

 films, free from bubbles, and very quickly." 



"Fi7n»/in-adulterated rubber looks beautiful until red ants bur- 

 row into it and eat the farinha out. Then when the rubber pcUes 

 are cut open the whole fraud is apparent and the adulterated • 

 rubber is rejected. Sometimes the rubber is shipped before the 

 ants get a chance at the farinha, and it is necessary for the rubber 

 manufacturer to know whether it is there or not, as the strength 

 of the rubber will show an extra shrinkage if it is present." 



Mr. Pearson recommended a very simple test, which is to have 

 a water solution of iodine and potassium iodide, which may be 

 applied with a brush to the freshly cut surface. If farinha is 

 there the surface will turn from a yellowish mahogany color to 

 blue.] 



FACIOTIES FOR RTJBBER TESTING IN THE EAST. 



The Department of Agriculture of the Federated Malay 

 States is now equipped to vulcanize, test and report on samples 

 of rubber from any plantation estates. 



Samples of rubber are sent to the Department of -'\griculture, 

 together with particulars of methods of preparation, and the 

 results of tests are reported to the estate sending in the samples. 

 Xo doubt these reports will be in the course of time published 

 in bulletins for public information and benefit. 



