REVIEW OF THE ORIENTAL SITUATION 297 



That fine hard Para should command a premium of 

 6d. (and often more) per^pound over the best plantation 

 descriptions would at first sight appear an anomaly. 

 It is more striking when the fact is remembered that 

 the Brazilian rubber often contains 20 per cent, of 

 moisture, as against i per cent, in the plantation 

 product. In this connection, the action taken by the 

 Rubber Growers' Association in the autumn of 1913 

 was distinctly a step in the right direction. The sug- 

 gestion to standardize the preparation of latex on the 

 estates is worthy of all consideration, but it would be 

 extremely difficult, if not impossible, to bring any such 

 practice into general use under existing conditions ; on 

 the other hand, the proposal to grade all rubber before 

 sale is a practical measure that can be applied with 

 advantage, and should be supported by all Eastern pro- 

 ducers. The causes for the lower value of plantation 

 rubber as against fine hard Para are the following: 



Variability. The practice of treating latex with 

 acetic and other acids tends to bring about unevenness 

 in the rubber, for the reason that each estate applies 

 these coagulants at the discretion of the manager, and 

 therefore without any fixed standard of quantity. The 

 fact that on the more important plantations the per- 

 centage of acid is regulated by competent chemists does 

 not affect the general result ; moreover, the majority of 

 producing estates are tapping trees of different ages, and 

 the latex is mixed in a common receptacle on arrival at 

 the factory. It is evident that the product of four-year- 

 old trees requires different treatment from that obtained 

 from trees ten years of age ; it would be interesting to 

 know the proportion of plantations making any dis- 

 tinction in regard to the different classes of latex col- 



