263 



wages are difficulties in the way of effecting it, yet the high value 

 it can confer on the land renders il worth trying. 



V. K. MENON, 



3.3. '02 Veterinary Inspector, Singapore. 



AN AMERICAN REPORT ON GUTTA PERCHA. 



The report of Dr. Penoyer L. Sherman, Jr., the special agent of 

 the Philippine forestry bureau detailed last year to visit the Straits 

 Settlements, Java, etc., to gather information regarding Gutta- 

 percha, has been published as an appendix to the latest report of 

 the United States Philippine commission (mentioned in the last 

 India Rubber World, page 98). 



He reports that the principal supply of the Gutta-percha of 

 commerce comes from points which only wild natives will or can 

 penetrate, and the preparation and marketing of the Gutta up to 

 its arrival at Singapore, is in the hands of the Chinese, who care- 

 fully guard all the secrets of the trade. He gained the impression 

 that the supplies now being " worked " are rapidly diminishing, 

 the quality decreasing, and prices increasing. 



The annual output of Gutta-percha has increased but very little 

 within the past five years, when the high prices have enticed more 

 native gatherers into the forest. Yet even then the demand has 

 been so out of proportion to the supply that even the Chinese have 

 had to resort more and more to adulteration. Consequently, of 

 the cheaper grades there seems to be plenty on hand, but of the 

 best variety there is not more than a ton all told (at Singapore, in 

 September, 1901), with a demand for 600 or 700 tons. From 

 long experience the Chinese are very clever in mixing, colouring, 

 and adulterating the liner grades with the cheaper ones, although 

 they apparently have nothing but smell, feel, and colour to go by. 

 And just as the natives guard the secret of the different kinds of 

 Gutta-percha trees and .heir locality, so do the Chinese hide their 

 methods of preparing Gutta-percha for foreign markets. With 

 the supply coming from different- countries and trees, and changed 

 and adulterated in different ways, it is no wonder the kinds and 

 varieties of Gutta-percha for sale in Singapore are very large. Of 

 the twenty-five different varieties, the following table gives the 

 principal ones, with their approximate amount of Gutta, and their 

 prices (in Mexican silver, for September, iqoi) as given by Low 

 How Kim & Co., one of the largest Gutta-percha dealers in Singa- 

 pore. 



