Dec. 190(5.] 



457 



Saps and Exudations. 



Mr. B amber said there was one other point. With regard to the question 

 of blocking rubber in a wet condition, he did not think it would be quite a wise 

 thing. The amount of moisture left would be a very variable quantity, and he 

 thought the manufacturers at home would be a little doubtful about the rubber. 

 They would find there was a bigger loss in some cases than in others, and at present 

 Ceylon had a name for losing very little in the washing and curing process, 

 and anything which made the quantity of water uncertain, might interfere with 

 the demand. 



Mr. II. Morison :— After the application of creosote, will Dr. Willis admit 

 that drying would do no harm ? 



Dr. Willis explained that he suggested that merely as an experiment for 

 proprietary planters to try in order to see what result they would get. Probably 

 the damp would make the quantity of rubber uncertain, but it was not difficult to 

 devise machinery to get over that difficulty. It should be quite easy to devise 

 machinery which would make the amount of water in a particular block of rubber 

 fairly uniform. 



Mr. C. Devitt :— That block of rubber is dried in layers, but it has water 

 in between each, and it would never do to mix creosote with the Ceylon rubber in 

 making one block. It would be wet and also not properly cured. In this block 

 each layer is dried, but it has got the water in between. It is not one mass. It 

 is in hundreds of different layers, but in a plantation like Lanadron the block 

 produced is all one piece. If you mixed creosote with the latex, you could never 

 dry it in one mass, i^ou would have to smoke each layer just the same as in th e 

 Amazon block. 



H.E. the Governor :— Mr. Wright has given us a very interesting lecture, 

 and I think the discussion has been of very great value. I think we have to thank 

 Mr. Wright for the great care with which he has prepared his lecture, and also 

 the gentlemen who have spoken on the subject for the information they have 

 given you, gentlemen and planters, and to the work in the future. (Applause.) 



THE USE OP GUAYULE RUBBER. 



Particularly at the present time any material which can satisfactorily 

 replace rubber in a mixing is a substance which every manufacturer would welcome. 

 If this substance is a genuine rubber, and which can be had at low price, it is quite 

 natural that the interest and curiosity of most manufacturers should be aroused. 

 So far as Guayule rubber is concerned, its friends put it forward as a rubber which 

 can satisfactorily take the place of many medium grade rubbers, and also replace 

 to some extent in many mixings the use of higher priced materials. To get good 

 results, however, the Guayule rubber must be very closely studied as it differs in 

 its conduct from most rubbers which manufacturers are in the habit of using. 



There are, on the other hand, many firms who have tried Guayule rubber 

 experimentally when it was first introduced, and who are of opinion that its use is 

 detrimental. So far as Ave are concerned personally, we have known of manu- 

 facturers who have made a success of Guayule, and of others who have failed to 

 use it with any degree of satisfaction. We are bound to confess, however, that 

 the latter used Guayule, not as a rubber which required special handling, but 

 very much as though it was a substitute for a low grade rubber, while the former 

 had spent a considerable time in making lengthy experiments in cleaning the 

 rubber, and as regards its vulcanizing qualities. 



The present article is not so much our own opinion of Guayule as the record 

 of an interview with Dr. Werner Esch, who has done a very considerable amount 

 of work on Guayule, and who was selected by Messrs. Riensch and Held of Hamburg: 



