THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST: 
[Fbij. 1, 1904. 
Wlien you have a man come into your office 
who for the last eight or nine years has been 
devotinji; every moment of his time to the planting 
and cultivating of some 3,000 acres of rubber 
trees, and who is at the same time possessed of a 
knowledge of chemistry, one is apt to have queries 
set to them which are not by any means easily 
answered. For instance; take the following 
queslion, "Can any difl'erence be detected (in 
marmfacture) of Para rubber cured by the sraokiijg 
process, and Para rubber (Ceylon) whicli bars been 
coagulated by means of acetic acid?" Or such 
a question as this : " Would rubber manufacturers 
prefer to have their rubber sent as it is at present, 
in cakes or balls, or in a thoroughly dried sheet, 
Euch as they iheuiselve s put into the drying rooms ? 
Tne second query is much more easily answered 
than the first, because after all it does not really 
matter very much in what form rubber comes so 
long a.n it has been thoroughly washed or cured 
(everything depending upon the process used for 
the so-called coagulation). Manufacturers are 
tnaturally inclined to view with some .suspicion 
any departure from the usual forms, because 
rubber is not a thing which lends itself to careles 
experiment or risk, and manufacturers are inclined 
Kather to bear those ills ihey have than fly to 
otheis that they know not of." 
ACETIC ACID FOR COAGULATION. 
With regard to the first question, however, it 
s not so easy to come to a decision. To start 
rom the beginning, it has been found possible to 
prepare rubber fromcuHivated trees without smok- 
ing, which has always been found necessary 
witli Para rubber gathered by the natives from 
the forests. Of course, this is due to the fact that 
it is possible to establish a little plant within ea^y 
reach of every part of a cultivated estate, and 
thus treat the latex all together, without fear of it 
having deteriorated in the meantime. This would 
be impossible in forests, where the collector can 
only take the crudest appliacces with him. In 
Ceylon it has been found that the so-called coagu- 
lation is difficult to bring about at most times, 
and planters have fallen back on the very old idea 
. ot adding acetic acid to the diluted latex in order 
to hasten the coagulation. Some planters seem- 
ingly add only a small quantity of acetic acid, 
others appear to use it without any hesitation, 
and in such quantities as to suggest the idea that 
they think the more acetic they add the more 
rubber they get, which of course is absurd, 
In the course of conversation with one of the 
most intelligent of planters we have had the 
fortune to meet, he remarked, there was nothing 
to prevent him, from following the course pursued 
by other planters and using acetic acid but the 
dread of in some way damaging the reputation of 
cultivated rubber from the East. The other 
planters have assured him that no complaint had 
ever been made to them with regard to the use of 
acetic acid, but, as he pointed out, this, assurance 
did not amount to much, because, even taking 
this year's output into account, the quantity 
exported had not been so very great, and further, 
there was no assurance that Ceylon rubber had 
been put by rubber manufacturers to its fullest 
u?e, When asked to explain what he meant by the 
latter phrase, he said that it had been reported to 
tliem that Ceylon rul>ber lacked "nerve," and 
that one of the principal uses to which it had been 
put was the making of high-grade solution. 
THE MANUFACTURER'S ASSISTANCE. 
What he wanted to know was, Did the use of 
acetic acid in the preparation of crude rubber lead 
to the formation of organic compounds wbich, 
when the rubber came to be vulcanised, in any 
way affected it, by, for example, volatilising, and 
causing porosity ? To effecVually test this, it is 
certain that the rubber planter endeavouring to 
prepare a high grade rubber without any draw- 
backs requires the co operation of a manufacturer 
of some ability, who was prepared also to go into 
the question. This point may appear to many to 
be an extremely small one, and of minor im- 
portance, but to the rubber planter who is taking 
a scientific interest in his product it is the very 
opposite. The planter to whom we have referred 
has, coming on to an age at which they can be 
tapped, an immense number of rubber trees, all 
extremely healthy. It has been the work of years 
to bring them to this stage, and during the greater 
portion of these years the results of the experiment 
were ever in doubt. One can imagine a man in 
this position .displaying a great keenness to leara 
how to bring the product to the market in the best 
possible form. Dr Weber's investigations at Colon 
were, of course, of immense benefit so far as to 
Castilloa was concerned. He was there able to 
prove that, by a rational process of preparation, 
it was possible to get from the Castilloa a rubber 
in every respect equal to Para. Naturally liow» 
ever, the process adapted for the Castilloa is noh 
necesarily adapted for the Hevea, and there is 
little to guide the planter in his procedure. There 
has been ample proof, however, that no necessity 
exists for going back to the process used by 
the natives {i.e. by smoking) in the pre- 
paration of Para rubber. The addition of acetic 
acid is condemned by many authorities, but no 
specific reasons are given. 
NO COMPLAINTS AGAINST CEYLON RUBBER. 
Ceylon growers cf rubber are using it at present, 
because up to this they have received no complaints 
about its use. If, however, they could be assured 
that it is harmless, or that it is prejudicial, a 
great doubt would be removed from the minds of 
many who take the greatest interest in the subject. 
If any rubber manufacturer could at this time help 
them to arrive at a conclusion in connection with 
this matter his advice would be very useful, and 
at the same time he could feel sure that he was 
helping on further the good cause namely, the 
possibility of obtaining on the market a rubber of 
A consistent quality, and so prepared as to be 
unvariably the same when used in manufacture. 
. DIRECT DEALINGS WITH THE MANUFACTUREK. 
Another new condition of afi'airs is brought 
about by the large number of cultivated rubber 
trees now coming into bearing. Referring again 
to the question put us by our friend, the rubber 
planter before mentioned, we come to a question 
which it has never been possible to ask before. 
Briefly put it is this, "He is able to offer during 
succeeding years rubber which will be continually 
advancing in quantity, but which will always be 
of the same quality. Must he go upon the market 
with this, or is it possible for him to sell direct to 
the manufacturer?" The advantages in oonnec. 
tion with this point are that all middle profits 
would be saved, and the manufacturer would thus 
be in a position to buy rubber of a definite quality 
at a lower price than he could obtain it on the 
market. The disadvantages are that for the firsb 
