214 THE RUBBER TREE BOOK 



The question next arises: Can the rubber be more cheaply 

 manufactured in the factory? It is possible that this may be 

 the case. The method and the machinery may not yet be in 

 existence, but there are many able men, both in engineering 

 firms at home and on plantations abroad, devoting much time 

 and attention to the subject. 



To sum up, it may be said that it is a matter of vital im- 

 portance to the rubber plantation industry that the product it 

 markets in such large and increasing quantities should be of the 

 very highest possible quality. Is it so at present? Clearly it 

 is not so. How is it that fine hard Para and plantation rubber, 

 as a general rule, sell at the same price per pound despite the fact 

 known and acknowledged that the loss of weight when a 

 rubber manufacturer washes plantation rubber before manufac- 

 turing it is but i per cent, of the total amount, whereas in 

 the case of fine hard Para it reaches quite 15 per cent, and is 

 often more? 



There are few manufacturers who more closely and con- 

 stantly scrutinize all items of expenditure than rubber manu- 

 facturers do. Competition is keen and prices are closely cut. 

 A rubber manufacturer buying two hundred tons of rubber 

 during the course of the year, at an average price of 43. 6d. per 

 pound, expends in all 100,800. If with this money he has 

 bought plantation rubber his monetary loss on re-washing at 

 i per cent, would amount to 1008. If, on the other hand, 

 he has bought fine hard Para, his apparent monetary loss would 

 be, at 15 per cent., 15,120, the difference being equal to a 

 year's profit on a business of a fair size. 



The question then arises what is the reason that a manu- 

 facturer does not eagerly grasp at this apparent saving? It 

 must be evident that being no fool he thinks that it is worth 

 while paying 14,112 more for two hundred tons of fine hard 

 Para than he would have to pay to purchase the same quantity 

 of plantation rubber. 



Rubber plantation companies cannot afford to shut their 

 eyes against hard facts like this. The tree tapped is the same 

 in both cases. The latex yielded is to everyone's belief of 

 the same consistency and quality in both cases. Clearly what- 

 ever fault there is in methods comes later. Is it in coagulation? 

 Possibly to some extent. The less of acetic acid which can be 



