RUBBER PLANTING 165 



of very thin or lace crpe. The thin wet crepe is 

 arranged in thin layers on the trays of the vacuum 

 drier, and when all are full the door of the oven is 

 secured and the pumping machinery set to work. From 

 the vacuum drier the rubber emerges after a couple of 

 hours in a fluffy condition, looking very much like a 

 blanket much more so than the blanket crepe into 

 which it is next converted by passing repeatedly 

 through a machine in which the rollers are set fairly 

 wide apart. The crepe is finally cut up into lengths 

 convenient for packing in boxes, which contain from one 

 to two cwts. of rubber. 



An objection to crepe, as usually exported at 

 present, lies in the fact that it does not bear the brand 

 of the estate impressed upon the rubber ; whereas sheet 

 and block rubber is regularly marked in this way. A 

 machine could easily be devised for stamping the sheets 

 of crepe at frequent intervals, and the use of some such 

 method is strongly to be recommended. 



Smoking. 



It is not uncommon to combine the slow drying 

 of rubber with a process of smoke curing, and for some 

 time past rubber prepared in this way has commanded 

 a higher price than the unsmoked variety. Many 

 buyers believe that the creosote and other substances 

 contained in the smoke exercise a preservative and 

 strengthening effect upon the rubber. The curing of 



