33 



be seen. The tendency in future will be to simplify machinery and 

 methods, and make rubber as cheaply as possible, rather than to 

 turn out an exceptionally fine form at a high expense, for which 

 only a very small extra remuneration will be obtained. I remember 

 sending for sale two lots of rubber together, one very carefully 

 prepared which fetched the top price of the day. With it was put 

 in some which had been prepared roughly in the course of 

 experiments and was quickly smoked and sent with the same lot 

 rather than waste it. This lot fetched \d. pound less than the 



irefully treated lot, merely on the ground that i 

 3 its having been smoked. This of course does not imply 1 

 ny rubber badly prepared will do as well as first class rubber, 



ely that there is a limit to the expense which can be gom 

 fancy machinery and methods. The best apparatus for removing 

 mechanical impurities seems to have been very successful, and in 

 cases of accident in the factory would be invaluable, but one is 

 inclined to consider the best way of preventing sticks, leaves, and 

 sand from getting into the latex is to discharge any coolie who lets 

 them get in. Still for all these machines there may be a use some 

 day, and to the inventors is due much credit. 



Mr. Kelway Bamber's work on vulcanization of the latex is 

 one of considerable importance, though as Mr. Zacharias points out 

 the different manufacturers have different methods of working up 

 the '.' dough " for which Bamber's vulcanized latex might be 

 unsuitable and it is improbable that factories of general rubber 

 goods would be started here even when the Peninsula turns out 

 5,ooo tons of rubber per year, but for articles of local consumption 

 could it not be utilized ? e.g., for flooring, ceilings, partitions in 

 houses in place of the match boarding so quickly destroyed by 



The other lectures and discussions at the show ate more 

 shortly treated of by Mr. Zacharias. They were printed in full in 

 the "Ceylon Times " and elsewhere. Tapping and yield questions 



cuts on the left side of a herring-bone produce 25 per cent, more 

 latex than those on the right : that an equal amount of latex U 

 obtained by tapping on alternate days to that obtained b\ tapping 

 daily and that repeated tappings though producing mote latex 

 produce less rubber. All these points require further investigation, 

 as they, except the last are quite at variance with what happens 

 here. p es ts were treated of by Mr. Petch and Mr. Green. 

 The former strongly condemned close planting and cutting 

 °ut, on the ground of injury caused by decaying stumps and 

 quite rightly too. Catchcrops formed the subject of one 

 discussion, but only cotton and camphor both useless in the 

 Peninsula and lemon grass were talked of. There are a number 

 more of suitable plants, at least in the Malay Peninsula. In the 

 discussion on markets and forms of rubber the day of biscuits was 

 |t was pointed out, gone. Nor was crepe likely to continue much 

 longer. The Lanadron blocks were a revelation to the other 

 Planters, and block rubber will probably be the form of the future. 

 J or Packing Mr. Db\ 1 n reaMnmor.ded'^trons clean cases to hold 

 100 to *5o lbs. of rubber with no packing. 



