September, 1911.] 



197 



SapsZand Exudations. 



improvements that have been made 

 since these successful factories were 

 erected. 



Experimental. 

 "The making of rubber plantation 

 machinery is in its infancy, and for that 

 reason every advance is likely to be a 

 big advance. Our factories, when built, 

 should be of the highest possible 

 efficiency, for only by the use of machin- 

 ery in its highest point of efficiency and 

 economy can we hope to overcome the 

 handicap under which we are placed by 

 local labour conditions. It would be 

 folly to sit at home and hope we may 

 start at the beginning and work 

 out the problems that others have 

 already gone far in solving. We 

 should learn all the others know and 

 then improve on their accomplishments. 

 For this reason I believe this association, 

 if this is the proper medium for joint 

 action by all the plantations and 

 planters, should send someone to the 

 London Exhibition next summer. Here 

 all the rubber machinery in the world 

 will be represented, and especially the 

 products of English manufacturers who 

 have for several years specialized in 

 plantation machinery. These will not 

 only be exhibited, but demonstrated, 

 and no better opportunity could possi- 

 bly be offered, or more timely for us. 



" It seems to me we should send some 

 one familiar with the problems here, 

 who can adapt to our local conditions 

 what he learns from the discussions and 

 exhibits there. He can there obtain the 

 best the world affords in tools for 

 tapping and curing our product. 

 I believe the person should have some 

 authority to purchase, for he might fiud 

 just the knife we require to overcome 

 our difficulties, or he might find just the 

 pricker we need, and if so, should be 

 able to purchase in such quantities as to 

 enable us to use them at once. This 

 would also enable us to get the best 

 possible equipment for our factories. 

 Were he to wait until his return home 

 and make his report for Directors to act 

 upon, before orders could be given that 

 must be filled in England, delay of 

 months would ensue, while, should he 

 order on the ground, the goods might 

 arrive nearly as soon as he did. Pur- 

 chases have got to be made anyway, and 

 why not go shoppiug to the one place 

 where all there is to choose from can be 

 seen at one time. He will be able to 

 compare prices. 



"The members of the Association have 

 spent in the neighbourhood of $300,000 to 

 bring the industry to its present state, 

 where the trees are ready to give their 



product ; 11,000 more, or whatever it 

 might cost to insure the making of this 

 product as valuable as possible, would 

 be well spent. The factory now under 

 way, and all that may hereafter be built, 

 should have a suitable apparatus, what- 

 ever it may prove to be, or at least 

 the most suitable yet discovered or in- 

 vented for properly smoking its rubber, 

 if by so doing it can obtain ten cents per 

 pound more for that rubber, or even 

 three cents per pound more. 



" Reports are just now coming to hand 

 of the invention of a successful machine 

 for doing chemically what the smoking 

 process used in fine hard Para does. 

 The late Mr. W. W. Hall had this in 

 mind when he suggested to me several 

 years ago the use of pyroligneous acid for 

 the purpose. If this machine is all that 

 it is hoped it will be, we should have it, 

 if it is adaptable to our product. The 

 only way to learn whether it is, is to see 

 it work. 



Drying Apparatus. 

 " We have found that we shall need 

 some sort of artificial drying apparatus. 

 If the rubber is kept for any length of 

 time exposed to the air, a mold forms on 

 it and it takes anyway three or four 

 weeks to dry the rubber out here, and 

 for that reason the rubber company has 

 come to the conclusion that it is wise for 

 us to invest a little money in a vacuum 

 dryer for the reason that we are not 

 ready at this time to spend money on 

 expensive machinery, 



Yield per Tree. 



" Our trees yield about a pound of 

 rubber from one hundred trees at a 

 tapping, or at one hundred tappings 

 from the same tree. We find trees that 

 are not more than ten inches in circum- 

 ference chat will give a profitable yield, 

 while some sixteen-inch trees do not 

 give a profitable yield. We find, too, 

 that removing the bark all at once is apt 

 to injure the tree, but we will probably 

 try to find some way of removing all of 

 the outside bark at once. This knife 

 does very good work cutting through 

 even the original tough bark as well as 

 the new bark that might form. 



" We have over 1,200 trees, and I think 

 it will work out to tap about nine times 

 and then rest the tree for a week. 



" We cannot tap one tree one huudred 

 times in a year unless we make our cuts 

 wider than this. Of course, if we made 

 our tappings twice as far apart, we 

 would get twice as much rubber. We 

 may find that it will be wiser in the long 

 run to make our tappings farther apart. 

 I do not think that we shall want to tap 



