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wages are difficulties in the way of effecting it, yet the nigh value 
it can confer on the land renders it worth trying. 
V. K. MENON, 
Veterinary inspector , Singapore. 
AN AMERICAN REPORT ON GUTTA PERCHA. 
The report of Or. Penoyer L. Sherman, Jr., the special agent of 
the Philippine forestry bureau detailed last year to visit the Straits 
Settlements, Java, etc., to gather information regarding Gutta- 
percha, has been published as an appendix to the latest leport ol 
the United States Philippine commission (mentioned in the last 
India Rubber World, page 98). 
He reports that the principal supply of the Gutta-percha of 
commerce comes from points which only wild natives will 01 can 
penetrate, and the preparation and marketing of the Gutta up to 
its arrival at Singapore, is in the hands of the Chinese, who care- 
fully guard all the secrets of the trade. He gained the impression 
that the supplies now being “ worked ” are rapidly diminishing, 
the quality decreasing, and prices increasing. 
The annual output of Gutta-percha has increased but very little 
within the past five years, when the high prices have enticed more 
native gatherers into the forest. Yet even then the demand has 
been so out of proportion to the supply that even the Chinese have 
had to resort more and more to adulteration. Consequently, of 
the cheaper grades there seems to be plenty on hand, but of the 
best variety there is not more than a ton all told (at Singapore, 111 
September, 1901), with a demand for 600 01*700 tons, brom 
long experience the Chinese are very clever in mixing, colouring, 
and adulterating the finer grades with the cheaper ones, although 
they apparently have nothing but smell, feel, and colour to go by. 
And just as the natives guard the secret of the different kinds of 
Gutta-percha trees and their locality, so do the Chinese hide then 
methods of preparing Gutta-percha foy foreign markets. With 
the supply coming from different countries and trees, and changed 
and adulterated in different ways, it is no wonder the kinds and 
varieties of Gutta-percha for sale in Singapore are very large. Of 
the twenty-five different varieties, the following table gives tne 
principal ones, with their approximate amount of Gutta, and their 
prices (in Mexican silver, for September, 1901) as given by Low 
How Kim & Co., one of the largest Gutta-percha dealers in Singa- 
pore. 
ffS 3 - 
