33 
be seen. The tendency in future will be to simplify machinery and 
methods, and make rubber as cheaply as possible, rather than to 
turn out an exceptionally fine form at a high expense, for which 
only a very small extra remuneration will be obtained. I remember 
sending for sale two lots of rubber together, one very carefully 
prepared which fetched the top price of the day. With it was put 
in some which had been prepared roughly in the coarse of 
experiments and was quickly smoked and sent with the same lot 
rather than waste it. This lot fetched •§■ d . pound less than the 
carefully treated lot, merely on the ground^that it was darker, due 
to its having been smoked. This of course does not imply that 
any rubber badly prepared will do us well as first class rubber, but 
merely that there is a limit to the expense which can be gone to in 
fancy machinery and methods. The best apparatus for removing 
mechanical impurities seems to have been very successful, and in 
cases of accident in the factory would be invaluable, but one is 
inclined to consider the best way of preventing sticks, leaves, and 
sand from getting into the latex is to discharge any coolie who lets 
them get in. Still for all these machines there may be a use some 
day, and to the inventors is due much credit. 
Mr. Kelway Bamber’s work on vulcanization of the latex is 
one of considerableimportanee, though as Mr. Zacharias points out 
the different manufacturers have different methods of working up 
the “ dough ” for which Bamber’s vulcanized latex might be 
unsuitable and it is improbable that factories of general rubber 
goods would be started here even when the Peninsula turns out 
5,000 tons of rubber per year, but for articles of local consumption 
coulddt not be utilized? e.g., for flooring, ceilings, partitions in 
houses in place of the match boarding so quickly destroyed by 
termites. *> * 
The other lectures and discussions at the show are more 
shortly treated of by Mr. Zacharias. They were printed in full in 
the “ Ceylon Times” and elsewhere. Tapping and yield questions 
were discussed and some curious facts brought out, such as that the 
cuts on the left side of a herring-bone produce 25 per cent, more 
latex than those on the right ; that an equal amount of latex is 
obtained by tapping on alternate days to that obtained by tapping 
daily and that repeated tappings though producing more latex 
produce less rubber. All these points require further investigation, 
as they, except the last are quite at variance with what happens 
here. Pests were treated of by Mr. Petch and Mr. Green. 
The former strongly condemned close planting and cutting 
out, on the ground of injury caused by decaying stumps and 
quite rightly too. Catchcrops formed the 'subject of one 
discussion, but only cotton and camphor both useless in the 
Peninsula and lemon grass were talked of. There are a number 
more of suitable plants, at least in the Malay Peninsula. In the 
discussion on markets and forms of rubber the day of biscuits was 
it was pointed out, gone. Nor was crepe likely to continue much 
longer. The Lanadron blocks were a revelation to the other 
planters, and block rubber will probably be the form of the future. 
For packing Mr. Devitt recommended strong clean cases to hold 
100 to 150 lbs. of rubber with no packing. 
P\l 
