94 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



seringueiro, so long as the present practice of working on 

 the share system is continued, and to pay daily wages 

 would increase the cost of production to a marked degree. 

 It is doubtful if a higher price for a cleaner rubber would 

 compensate for the expenditure necessary for the con- 

 struction, equipment, and maintenance, of a modern 

 factory, apart from the difficulty of competent supervision 

 to insure any satisfactory results. Moreover, it would 

 entail the complete reorganization of the labour system. 

 There is another and very important reason why the 

 present method of coagulation should not be abandoned 

 without the most careful consideration of the possible 

 effects on the quality of the rubber. When the latex is 

 coagulated by the smoking process on paddle or stick, 

 the rubber produced is not subjected to any form of 

 pressure, or to the unavoidable maceration entailed by 

 the use of the creping machinery common to factories 

 on Eastern plantations ; therefore no injury can be in- 

 flicted upon the product by the Brazilian methods as 

 generally practised at the present time. The conse- 

 quences to Eastern rubber produced by the severe 

 treatment accorded to it in the great majority of planta- 

 tion factories have never been clearly demonstrated, and 

 it may be that the higher standard of elasticity and 

 length of life so often claimed for the Brazilian product 

 may be due in some measure to the absence of all 

 crushing or tearing during the preparation of the latex. 

 In any case, the most careful laboratory investigation in 

 general, and special tests in particular, should be made 

 before a marked alteration is attempted in regard to the 

 substitution of any new system in place of the methods 

 now employed. 



