Owns, Resins, 



416 



[May, 1909. 



The longer roller has an advantage 

 over the short ones at present in use 

 that the risk of oil from the bearing 

 reaching the rubber as it passes through 

 the rollers is decreased. Rubber prepar- 

 ed in a number of small-length machines 

 will be in more danger of being dis- 

 coloured at places than that prepared 

 in fewer and longer rollers. 



The length of rollers in rubber-wash- 

 ing machines used in factories in Europe 

 is often 12 feet, whereas, as a rule, on 

 estates in the Federated Malaya 

 States two or more rollers of not more 

 than a foot in length are often used. 

 Preparation of Rubber for the 

 Market. 



Block rubber, the advantages of which 

 for packing, transport and preparation 

 are undoubted, has not commended itself 

 generally to the planter. Until large 

 quantities of any of the forms of rub- 

 ber produced in Malaya, viz., block, 

 crepe, and sheet, are put on the market, 

 it will not be possible to settle the 

 much-vexed question as to the advan- 

 tages of each. A sale at a high price of 

 a shipment of any of these forms at once 

 produces the impression that that 

 special form is more attractive to 

 buyers and will command better prices, 

 but it should be remembered that the 

 quality of the rubber as well as the 

 shape in which it is sent is a factor, 

 and the most important factor, in deter- 

 mining its market value. In whatever 

 form it is sent it is of the most vital im- 

 portance that planters should continue to 

 aim at the purest and cleanest rubber. 

 The manufacturers have begun to realise 

 the advantages of the freedom from 

 impurities which Eastern plantation rub- 

 ber possesses, and this good opinion 

 is too valuable to be endangered by 

 using less care in preparation. 

 Rubber Seed for Oil Manufacturing 

 Purposes. 

 Rubber seed, both with the husk on 

 and decorticated, has been sent to the 

 Imperial Institute and to various com- 

 mercial firms dealing in such products 

 in Europe and Australia in order to 

 introduce this article to them with a 

 view to a future market. 



The oil from the seed is a drying oil 

 not unlike linseed oil in appearance and 

 smell, and probably will prove as good, 

 as, if not better than, the latter oil in 

 manufacture of paints and varnishes. 

 Manufacturers or dealers wishing to 

 have samples of the seeds either de- 

 corticated or in the shell should com- 

 municate with this department. A profit 

 per acre — after paying all expenses of 

 picking, husking, packing and shipping— 

 of at least $5 to $8 may be earned on 

 estates with trees in full fruit bearing. 



While the demand tor considerable 

 quantities of seed for planting purposes 

 continues, this method of disposing of 

 seed is very much more profitable than 

 the sale for oil, but with an immense 

 number of trees producing fruit the 

 supply for planting purposes will soon 

 greatly exceed the demand and an 

 additional market is needed. If the 

 seed are left on the ground they 

 germinate freely, and money must be 

 spent in weeding out the young plants. 



The question in regard to the best 

 methods of preparation and packing of 

 the seed in exporting it for oil purposes 

 continues to engage the attention of the 

 Department of Agriculture, and a 

 further report will be issued. 



J. B. CARRUTHERS. 



EXPERIMENTS IN TAPPING CEARA 

 RUBBER TREES. 



Address by Dr. Wilcox at the Ha- 

 waiian Rubber Growers' Association, 

 Second Annual Meeting. 



The rubber experiments which are 

 being carried on by the U. S. Experi- 

 ment Station and Territorial Board of 

 Agriculture and Forestry have been 

 under way long enough to indicate cer- 

 tain results which are of practical im- 

 portance to rubber growers. Thus far 

 more than 200 trees, most of them less 

 than three years old, have been tapped. 

 These trees averaged from twelve to 

 thirteen inches in circumference and 

 were located chiefly on the grounds of 

 the Koclau Rubber Company, on Maui. 

 In tapping young trees it was not ex- 

 pected that profitable returns of rubber 

 would be obtained ; but the plan in- 

 volved the practical point of determin- 

 ing the rapidity with which trees could 

 be tapped, and satisfactory methods of 

 handling labour to the best advantage. 

 In the first series of eighty trees, which 

 were tapped by means of one verticle 

 cut each day, it required thirty-six 

 hours and forty minutes of labour to 

 tap the trees, collect the latex, and 

 secure H pounds of dry rubber. In 

 the second series of experiments on 160 

 trees, which were tapped with two 

 verticle cuts instead of one, it required 

 only forty hours of labour to tap the 

 trees, collect the latex and obtain five 

 pounds of first-class rubber and about 

 a pound of scrap rubber. In this ex- 

 periment in which two verticle cuts 

 were used daily, profitable returns 

 were obtained. 



It was found that an ordinary labourer 

 could tap rubber trees, by means of 

 two long verticle cuts, at the rate of 

 about fifty trees an hour and could collect 

 latex at the rate of one hundred trees 



