Within a week or two a consignment of over 1,000 lbs. 
weight of this rubber is exported, and this will represent the first 
large quantity of the material which has been put upon the 
English market, and will be a fair test of the way in which such 
rubber bears packing and tropical transport. Samples of this 
shipment will be distributed for inspection and criticism, and any 
suggestions as to improvements or alterations in the manner 
of packing foi transport will be welcomed. 
It may be pointed out that this shipment is not altogether 
an experimental one, but rather the first of many. This estate 
alone is now capable of supplying . large monthly amounts of 
rubber of regular and uniform quality, and what is now an 
accomplished fact on one estate will soon be the condition on 
many others. 
With regard to letters published in the “ India-rubber Journal” 
of March 13th, in criticism of the method of preparing washed 
rubber on the plantations themselves, they raise two points for 
consideration, the one is that plantation-washed rubber may be 
adulterated with an inferior rubber, and the second that the 
rubber may not be sufficiently clean — either through imperfect 
washing in the first instance or through careless handling and 
pa king subsequently. 
The fear of adulteration is quite natural, but in reality will 
not- be justified when dealing with rubber from large estates 
under European management. The incentive to adulteration is 
in the East, with present conditions of the rubber market, not 
felt at all. All rubber is commanding good prices, and it may be 
quite safely believed that an estate which has gone so far as to 
establish a washing apparatus in order to turn out pure, clean, 
dry rubber, will not jeopardise its reputation and good name for 
the sake of making a temporary trifling increase to profits which 
are already large. 
The conditions under which the plantation and preparation 
are carried on are not, in Europe, sufficiently realised. To obtain 
on a plantation of Para any quantity of an inferior rubber is 
difficult, and could scarcely be done without a considerable 
degree of publicity. It will be easier for the management of the 
estate to turn out pure and unadulterated rubber than to wilfully 
adulterate the product. 
The simplest solution of this difficulty of fear of adulteration 
of washed rubber will be to sample it and have the samples 
analysed and technically examined, if a simple inspection by 
expert buyers is not sufficient for accurately estimating the quality. 
In my own opinion, however, the pale colour, smell, and general 
appearance of this plantation washed sheet will be quite sufficient 
to enable an experienced man to say whether the rubber be 
pure Para or mixed with other rubbers, and that with an 
accuracy as much as, or more than, in the case of plantation 
biscuits. 
