387 



No-body knows what Mexican rubber, prepared under intelligent 

 supervision, is going to bring, as compared with others rubbers. 

 We know what manufacturers arc paving for the stuff which the 

 Mexican Indians carry in driblets to Tuxtepec and Vera Cruz and 

 Tampico. and which is shipped thence ungraded to New York. But 

 we do not understand that any planters are contemplating the ship- 

 ment of rubber so prepared. What rubber really costs at the factory 

 is not the price paid to the importer, but it is the cost of the rubber 

 after it has been cleaned and dried. 



Thus Para rubber, imported at S i a pound, with 15 per cent of 

 shrinkage in clearing, really costs the manufacturer $ 1 . 1 7 4 . At the 

 same time Mexican rubber, imported at only 75 cents, with 30 per 

 cent shrinkage, reallv costs at the factory 81.07 a pound. The 

 chief explanation of the high prices obtained by the Ceylon planters 

 is that they don't ship dirt to market ; the percentage of shrinkage 

 in their product is almost nil. Hence when some Ceylon rubber 

 sold recently in London at $l.2gj per pound, while Central Ameri- 

 can rubber brought only 81 cents, this difference alone formed no 

 reason for discouraging the planters of Castilloa, which yields the. 

 Central sorts. The latter rubber might have brought 81 more, if 

 prepared as carefully as the Ceylon rubber. 



It is not meant here that, under any method of treatment now 

 understood, rubber absolutely equal to il Para "can be prepared 

 from Castilloa; the rubbers are characteristically unlike in important 

 respects. But in comparing the selling prices of rubber, consider- 

 ation should be given to the causes for the existing difference in 

 results obtained, not the least of which is due to the degree of care 

 exercised in preparing rubber for market. 



It appears that not all of the rubber planters of the Far East are 

 wholly satisfied with their prospects. At least some of them are 

 heard from now and then who fear that somebody else is likely to 

 do better than they are doing. Some of them, for instance, feel 

 that the Castilloa will prove a more prolific producer of rubber than 

 the Hevca, and therefore profitable. Some such complaints have 

 led The Straits Times, published at Singapore, to assert that 

 the planters have no cause for worry, "for there can be 

 no doubt that they have wonderful market waiting for all the rubber 

 of any kind that they can produce within this generation.'* 



India Rubber World, Vol. XXX p. 295. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Notices to Subscribers. 



1, For the information of subscribers and others who wish to 

 complete their series of Bulletins, notice is given that numbers 

 I, 7, 8 and 9, of the old Series (i 891 to 1900) and Nos. [, 8, 9 and 

 10, of New Series, Vol. 1 (1901-1902) have been reprinted and 



