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Sheet rubber is still popular with a great many consumers, and 
the Smoked continues to command a premium. 
It has been generally notel that Sheet rubber that has been made 
by heavy machinery is very superior to that made by the old hand 
rollers or mangle, the machine-made sheets showing very few traces 
of mould or stains, and from what we can gather from Planters, are 
very much easier to deal with in the factory than the hand-mangled 
sheets. 
In smoking the Sheet rubber, care should be taken that the sheets 
are all thoroughly and evenly smoked, and above all, great care should 
be taken that the smoke-house should not be allowed to become too 
hot, which results in the charring or scorching of the rubber. 
The smoking of rubber generally has not come into vogue as 
much as we should like to see, but certain estates are regularly send- 
ing forward extremely fine lots which are eagerly competed for. 
Creped rubber is now in general demand and used by every 
manufacturer and is for more easily handled in the Plantation factory, 
and arrives in London generally in a better state than Sheet. Of late 
several estates have been very' successful in making thick Crepe in all 
grades. This Crepe is approximately three times the thickness of the 
Crepe sent forward hitherto. The method employed to obtain this 
thick Crepe is to abandon the use of the smooth even-speed rollers 
for finishing. After creping and washing in the ordinary way the 
Crepe should be passed through diamond or grooved rollers of even 
speed for finishing, care being taken to see that the rubber is not 
pressed too thin. The result is a strong tough sample of a hard 
gristly appearance ; this method has met with the approval of con- 
sumers generally, and we can safely recommend its adoption for all 
grades, including the Scrap and Bark qualities. It has been argued 
that rubber prepared in this way takes a considerable time to dry, and 
that the size of drying rooms would have to be increased. There is 
no doubt that thick Crepe does take longer to dry than thin, but being 
three times the thickness it takes exactly one-third of the space, so 
what is lost in one way is gained in the other. If thin Crepe is fii^t 
made and partly dried, the lengths can be laid three or four deep and 
rolled out again, and made into Blanket Crepe of say to a quartei o 
an inch thick. 
With regard to Smoked Crepe not much progress has been made, 
the difficulty being at present that if No. I Crepe is smoked it olten 
turns a bad colour and the appearance is not improved ; however, we 
should like to urge Planters not to desist in their experiments, as we 
have a great belief in the future of smoked rubber generally. 
While we are on the subject of Crepe Rubber, we must warn 
managers that a good deal of money has been lost through the Scrap 
and Bark grades not being sufficiently washed, the presence o s < 
pieces of wood or bark making a difference m value of pence pa lb. 
