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Sheet rubber is still popular with a great many consumers, and 

 the Smoked continues to command a' premium. 



It has been generally notei that Sheet rubber that has been made 

 by heavy machinery is very superior to that made by the old hand 

 rollers or mangle, the machine-made sheets showing very few traces 

 of mould or stains, and from what we can gather from Planters, are 

 very much easier to deal with in the factory than the hand-mangled 

 sheets. 



In smoking the Sheet rubber, care should be taken that the sheets 

 are all thoroughly and evenly smoked, and above all, great care should 

 be taken that the smoke-house should not be allowed to become too 

 hot, which results in the charring or scorching of the rubber. 



The smoking of rubber generally has not come into vogue as 

 much as we should like to see, but certain estates are regularly send- 

 ing forward extremely fine lots which are eagerly competed for. 



Creped rubber is now in general demand and used by every 

 manufacturer and is for more easily handled in the Plantation factory, 

 and arrives in London generally in a better state than Sheet. Of late 

 several estates have been very successful in making thick Crepe in all 

 grades. This Crepe is approximately three times the thickness of the 

 Crepe sent forward hitherto. The method employed to obtain this 

 thick Crepe is to abandon the use of the smooth even-speed rollers 

 for finishing. After creping and washing in the ordinary way the 

 Crepe should be passed through diamond or grooved rollers of even 

 speed for finishing, care being taken to see that the rubber is not 

 pressed too thin. The result is a strong tough sample of a hard 

 gristly appearance ; this method has met with the approval of con- 

 sumers generally, and we can safely recommend its ado]Dtion for all 

 grades, including the Scrap and Bark qualities. It has been argued 

 that rubber prepared in this way takes a considerable time to dry, and 

 that the size of drying rooms would have to be increased. There is 

 no doubt that thick Crepe does take longer to dry than thin, but being 

 three times the thickness it takes exactly one-third of the space, so 

 v/hat is lost in one way is gained in the other. If thin Crepe is first 

 made and partly dried, the lengths can be laid three or four deep and 

 rolled out again, and made into Blanket Crepe of sa}^ to a quarter of 

 an inch thick. 



With regard to Smoked Crepe not much progress has been made, 

 the difficulty being at present that if No. I Crepe is smoked it often 

 turns a bad colour and the appearance is not improved ; however, we 

 should like to urge Planters not to desist in their experiments, as we 

 have a great belief in the future of smoked rubber generally. 



While we are on the subject of Crepe Rubber, we must warn 

 managers that a good deal of money has been lost through the Scrap 

 and Bark grades not being sufficiently washed, the presence of small 

 pieces of wood or bark making a difference in value of pence per lb. 



