i\o-bod)- knows what Mexican rubber, prepared under intelligent 
supenision, is going to bring, as- compared with others rubbers. 
We know what manufacturers are paying for the stuff which the 
Mexican Indians carry in driblets to Tuxtepec and Vera Cruz and 
Tampico, and which is shipped thence ungraded to New York. But 
we do not understand that any planters are contemplating the ship- 
ment of rubber so prepared. What rubber really costs at the factory 
is not the price paid to the importer, but it is the cost of the rubber 
after it has been cleaned and dried. 
Thus Para rubber, imported at Si a pound, with 15 per cent of 
shrinkage in clearing, really costs the manufacturer fir .17 L At the 
same time Mexican rubber, imported at only 75 cents, with 30 per- 
cent shrinkage, really costs at the factory' Si. 07 a pound. The 
chief explanation of the high prices obtained by the Ceylon planters 
is that they don t ship dirt to market ; the percentage of shrinkage 
in their product is almost nil. Hence when some Ceylon rubber 
sold recently in London at Si. 29^ per pound, while Central Ameri- 
can rubber brought only 8 1 cents, this difference alone formed no 
reason for discouraging the planters of Castilloa , which yields the 
Central sorts. The latter rubber might have brought $ 1 more, if 
prepared as carefully as the Ceylon rubber. 
It is not meant here that, under any method of treatment now- 
understood, rubber absolutely equal to <• Para "can be prepared 
from Castilloa] the rubbers are characteristically unlike in important 
1 espects. But itr comparing the selling prices of rubber, consider- 
ation should be given to the causes - for the existing difference in 
results obtained, not the least of which is due to the degree of care 
exercised in preparing rubber for market. 
It appears that not all of the rubber planters of the Far Fast are 
wholly satisfied with their prospects. At least some of them are 
heard from now and then who fear that somebody else is likely to 
do better than they are doing. . Some of them, for instance, feel 
that the Castilloa will prove a more prolific producer of rubber than 
the Hevca, and therefore profitable. Some such complaints have 
led The Straits T tines , published at Singapore, to assert that 
the planters have no cause for worry, “for there can be 
no doubt that they have wonderful market waiting for all the rubber 
of any kind that they can produce within this generation.' 
India Rubber World, Vol. XXX p. 295. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Notices to Subscribers. 
1. For the information of subscribers and others who wish to 
complete their series of Bulletins, notice is given that numbers 
r, 7, 8 and 9, of the old Series (.1891 to 1900) and Nos. 1, 8, 9 and 
