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to the expedient of mixing the various lots and forming a 
blend. Now I throw that out as a suggestion on the question 
of standardization. If the rubber from twelve different estates 
were mixed, would you not be likely to obtain a more constant 
product? That is to say, if the rubber from each estate varies, 
would you not, if you vulcanized them all together in certain 
definite proportions, get a blend which would remain constant? 
As regards crépe versus sheet, the cheapest form in which 
a planter can produce rubber is in unsmoked sheets. Smoked 
sheets cost a trifle more. The origin of créping was to assist 
drying, as before artificial drying was introduced it was more 
difficult to dry sheet rubber. One well-known manufacturer 
asked me some months ago, ‘‘Why don’t you produce 
biscuit? ’’ I said, ‘‘ Sheet and biscuit are exactly the same; 
but we can produce sheet cheaper, and incidentally get a rather 
better price.’”’ But I happened to discover that that manu- 
facturer wanted biscuit because he could get it at a penny a 
pound cheaper. That was very natural from his point of view, 
and it was equally natural from our point of view that we had 
stopped making biscuit. The great trouble of the planter, as 
has been already pointed out, is to learn exactly what the 
manufacturers want. One manufacturer says he wants crépe, 
another says he wants sheet. But all are agreed on the one 
point, and that is the question of variation, and it is for that 
reason that as a possible solution.I throw out the suggestion 
that by blending the produce of different estates we might 
arrive at a common rubber; that is to say, a rubber of constant 
quality. 
M. Emit Bartiaup (Marseilles): Mr. President and Gentle- 
men—I am sorry that some of our French rubber manu- 
facturers are not present at this meeting, because there is a 
general feeling in France among our big manufacturers that 
it is not possible to utilize plantation rubber for certain things 
—for instance, the inner tubes of tyres. There must be some 
reason for this view, and perhaps it is due to the fact that there 
are different qualities of plantation rubber. If only the best 
quality were used, perhaps it would give as good results as 
the wild Para rubber from South America, which at present 
they say they must have. I am sorry that French manu- 
facturers are not here to express their views, but I think that 
when they find they can get good plantation rubber they 
will use it. 
Mr. F Crospre Rotts: Mr. President and Gentlemen—lI 
think that in many of the references to standardization the 
matter of greatest practical importance to the great majority 
of estates is liable to be overlooked. Uniformity is the all- 
important requirement of the day and of the future, and it is 
