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goods, &c., can be equally well used in the inferior grades of manu- 
facture. Manufacturers vary their mixtures according to the price 
of the different grades, their effort always being— and at the present 
prices this is more than ever the case— to produce the cheapest 
possible mixture consistent with their standard of manufacture. 
While it is true that a high class rubber can be used for almost any- 
thing, the reverse is not the case, and the inferior grades of- rubber 
can only be used in inferior work, such as, for instance, garden hose, 
door mats, rubber flooring, &c., where elasticity is not requiried. 
The produce of the Amazon is divided approximately into three 
grades, which find Kttally different uses, these. being: Fine 1 ara, 
about 24,000 tons; negroheads of various descriptions, about 8,000 
tons; and Peruvian ball about 8,000 tons. 
MOTOR TIRES. 
Fine Para is the standard grade for the whole market. It is 
bought and sold on name only, without samples, being shown, and is 
the one grade of rubber which, generally speaking, can be used for the 
manufacture of any and every description of. rubber goods. As its 
price to-day, however, is about 10s. per lb., it stands to reason tna 
manufacturers economize in the use of this grade as much as they 
can, particularly as in its crude state it contains about 15 per cent ot 
impurities— mostly water— so that by the time the manufacturer has 
washed and dried it, he has to work with raw material costing him near- 
ly 12s. per lb. However, for the manufacture of really high-class 
goods, such as the inner tubes of motorltires, the manufacturer has no 
alternative but to use hard cure fine Para. No other rubber has the 
necessary strength and resiliency to stand the strain. 
A small quantity of the very best plantation rubber— namely, the 
fine smoked sheet— produced by the Highlands and Vallambrosa 
companies, and to a smaller extent by a few other companies, will 
give the same test for strength, but the total arrivals per annum of 
this smoked sheet are only a little over 100 tons, so that as yet they 
hardly relieve the situation at all. 
For the outer cover manufacturers are able to use, in conjunction 
with fine Para, a certain proportion of the other Amazon rubbers— 
negroheads and ball— as well as fine plantation rubber, and some ot 
the very best medium rubbers. It is estimated 'that the present 
annual consumption of rubber for the manufacture ot motor tires 
amounts to not less than 30,000 tons per annum, so that it will be 
seen that, apart altogether from the question of cost, it is impossible 
for manufacturers to use nothing but fine Para in their construction. 
V - 
\H 
GOLOSHES. 
It will be seen from the above that motor tires alone account for 
a large part of the total output of the Amazon, and it will astonish 
many people to know that the article next in importance from the 
rubber consumption point of view, absorbing approximately 
15,000 tons per annum, in rubber shoes, known in America simply as 
