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and having already advanced so far towards perfection with 

 these grades, it would be a pity if too much inventive energy 

 should be diverted from further perfecting them to devising all 

 sorts of appliances for adapting the primitive methods of the 

 forests to Eastern conditions. I allude to the ever increasing 

 number of processes for curing latex by 'smoke. This research 

 has derived its incentive from the theory that fine hard Para 

 is stronger and more uniform in quality than smoked sheet 

 or crepe by reason of the method of actual coagulation. Surely 

 this is a slender foundation. It has yet to be demonstrated 

 that the actual process by which fine hard Para is coagulated 

 is responsible for any such access of strength and uniformity, 

 and until such proof is forthcoming it must be premature to 

 abandon our present standards. Any such change would 

 involve all over again a complete unsettling of the consumers' 

 calculations, and he might once more have to set to work by 

 bitter experience to buy his knowledge of still other new 

 descriptions of rubber. 



I believe it is a well-known fact that the Hevea latex will 

 only coagulate when acidity is set up. Whether this acidity 

 is imparted to the milk by means of fumes and vapour or by 

 an admixture of acid in liquid form can hardly have any serious 

 influence on the fibre and nerve of the resulting rubber unless 

 excess of acid is used. 



The Brazilian Government is said quite recently to have 

 voted a substantial prize or subsidy to a gentleman who has, 

 after years of study, devised a means of preparing Brazilian 

 rubber by a scientific process. The essence of this invention, 

 according to accounts of it which have appeared in the press, 

 is to do away entirely with the use of smoke in coagulation ; 

 yet every day almost one hears of the machine having been 

 invented, either here or in the East, which will coagulate latex 

 by the direct agency of smoke. 



One is constantly asked by planters, '" Why do not the 

 manufacturers tell us what they really want?" One feels 

 tempted to reply that it is the planter who has taught and is 

 teaching the manufacturer what he should use ; and who has 

 given the manufacturer a product remarkable for its dryness, 

 purity and colour such as was previously undreamt of. The 

 user of rubber in the past had perforce to buy his raw supplies 

 in a dirty, wet, and often putrified condition, and laboriously 

 to clean and prepare them at considerable expense before they 

 were in a fit state for use. 



It is obvious that the Eastern industry has enormous 

 economic advantages over all wild rubber areas, and it is 

 equally true that in some departments these advantages are 

 only now beginning to be realized and made use of. We have 



