119 



Saps and Exudations. 



expense of sending out a representative so early in the history of the industry is 

 very significant of the importance placed on the future Ceylon and Malay rubber 

 industry. Mr. Devitt during his visit will visit as many estates as possible, 

 and do all he can to assist planters by giving them the London view on matters. 

 Mr. Devitt does not think planters will find it any more profitable or advantageous 

 to send their rubber to the continental markets. 



Mr. Devitt explains that before the sales the cases of rubber are turned out 

 and sorted into three or four qualities, for it varies in colour, and some biscuits are 

 mottled and blotched, etc. This mottled rubber is perfectly sound and good, but 

 buyers go mostly on the appearance of the rubber. The assortments when placed 

 out on the tables are of various weights down to even 5 lb. lots. All samples taken 

 are allowed for to the planter. If a buyer takes a pound or even a single biscuit 

 as a sample, he has to pay for it at the rate the bulk sells for; every sample must be 

 paid for. This is a point which will be very satisfactory to planters, for rumours to 

 the contrary have been circulated. 



As regards packing plantation rubber Mr. Devitt lays stress on the im- 

 portance of having it perfectly dry. Rubber has been unpacked by him that had 

 on it a rich coloured bloom, a fungoid growth, the result of packing wet material. 

 The drier the rubber before beiug packed the better. Mr. Devitt has handled Brazil 

 rubber which took two years from the time it was collected to arrive in Loudon, 

 and it was all the drier and not harmed at all. Crepe and lace rubber were very 

 quickly dried, he believed, but preference was given by buyers to sheet. Mr. W. W. 

 Bailey had sent home from the Malay States sheets which bore the impress of 

 rollers through which it had evidently been passed to squeeze out all the superfluous 

 moisture, and this was dried rapidly, and was excellent rubber. 



The manufacturer, our visitor states, wants the rubber in as raw a form as 

 possible ; he objects to washed rubber in any form for these reasons — it is tees- 

 passing on the manufacturer's work ; and rubber always loses something in elasti- 

 city and quality in washing. The planter, says Mr. Devitt, must not encroach on 

 the manufacturer's department, and the best way to send the rubber is in its rawest 

 though purest state. Mr. Devitt has known of cases where the planter has come 

 into contact with the manufacturer, trying to do direct trade. This, he firmly 

 believes, will be detrimental to the planters' interests. The manufacturer is appa- 

 rently a troublesome customer, and he will readily find excuses for finding fault 

 with the rubber sent, and then demands " arbitration," and endless trouble and 

 litigation may follow. Mr. Devitt speaks from experience. His firm are solely 

 brokers , and it is in their interests to get the highest possible prices for the 

 product ; the buyer must have the rubber and will always come for it and pay 

 good prices. 



Regarding the purposes to which plantation rubber is put, Mr. Devitt says 

 it is impossible to know. The manufacturers guard their trade secrets too zealously, 

 and no one outside knows to what use special rubber is put. "Solution" no doubt 

 accounts for some, and that is generally stated as an easy answer to the question. 

 The big manufacturers, like the Silvertown and North British Companies, do not 

 use plantation rubber except experimentally ; they have their costly washing 

 machines and it does not pay them to take the clean plantation product. These 

 big firms formerly supplied the small manufacturers with their wants, but now 

 the latter can buy the plantation rubber and prefer to do this than give the extra 

 cost to the big manufacturer. 



Mr. Devitt thinks there is no harm in using a little acetic acid for coagu- 

 lating the latex. All sorts of acid are used in some parts of the world for wild 

 rubber; some is coagulated with lime-juice and hi Mangabeira rubber, for instance, 



