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It follows that in order to reduce the amount of variation 
in rubber from different estates and districts combined efforts 
must be made to arrive at the best system of tapping and 
provide that this system shall be generally adopted. Ceylon 
has always set a notable example in the very far-sighted way in 
which her planters have made a practice of comparing notes 
one with another and thus enabling what has been found to be 
the best method to be generally employed, and it would be of 
great advantage if this principle could be followed more 
thoroughly throughout the East. 
It appears to have been found that trees have often in the 
past been treated with too much severity; the incisions made 
should be as few in number and as simple in character as 
possible, in order to economize bark and labour. 
Having standardized the method of producing the latex, the 
next step is surely to reduce the milk thus collected to a 
standard bulk. A great advance has been made in this 
direction lately by the introduction by the chemists acting for 
the Malaya and Ceylon Research Funds of an appliance for 
quickly ascertaining the proportion of rubber in any latex. It 
should now, therefore, be a simple matter for every factory, 
however small, to ensure that the latex when collected shall 
be reduced to a pre-determined standard strength before 
coagulation is allowed. Then it has always been impressed 
upon planters that only the minimum amount of acid neces- 
sary to promote coagulation must be used. Strict steps must 
be enforced to ensure that this is not exceeded. 
The fresh coagulum (i.e., the coagulated rubber before the 
total amount of contraction has taken place) is naturally more 
liable to damage through rough handling than mature, cured 
rubber, and it is essential that only so much working in the 
machine shall be permitted as will effectually reduce the rubber 
into a form suitable for drying and packing. 
Experiments which have been made with thick sheets put 
once through a hand mangle with only slight pressure go to 
emphasize the advantage of avoiding harsh treatment of the 
coagulum in the early stages of preparation. 
The two varieties on which plantation rubber has built up 
its already wonderful reputation are smoked sheet and crépe. 
The consumer has now to a large extent familiarized himself 
with these, and his objections to them and criticism of them 
have dwindled one by one until very few remain, and he must 
have either or both of these grades. 
It is, of course, most necessary that every possible avenue of 
experiment should be followed by which any improvement can 
be effected in the nature of the rubber, but one cannot help 
feeling that, after working at crépe and sheet all these years 
