137 
ESTATE MARKS OIST PLANTATION RUBBERS. 
An interesting article on this important subject ap- 
pears in the current issue of “The India Rubber 
Journal” The writer points out that the India Rubber 
Manufacturers Association some time back took up the 
subject and addressed letters to the Governors of Ceylon 
and Malaya pointing out the advisability of planters re- 
gistering trade marks for various brands of Rubber in 
order to facilitate identification. It is further stated that 
’’t is very gratifying to notice the interest which many 
manufacturers are now taking in plantation rubber, arid 
especially with reference to the establishment of brands on 
the produce from the various estates in the Indo-Malayan 
region. 
A manufacturer writing in the same issue of the “India 
Rubber Journal” stales that at the present time the bulk 
of plantation rubber is bought from sample and as the 
many different forms appear in many different grades and 
in various conditions the result is a want of uniformity in 
the parcels offered. If proper steps, he says, were taken 
to standardize and brand the various grades of rubber, 
there seems no adequate reason why in course of time the 
bulk of the product of each Estate should not he sold under 
its marks and without reference to samples at all. This is 
done in the case of wild Para and should be more easily 
done in the case of Plantation Rubber. 
A number of Estates have already adopted this system 
of branding their rubber but a great number have not and 
many brands are said not to he recognized or understood 
by the majority of manufacturers but as the number of 
estates increases and the quantity of rubber produced be- 
comes much larger than at present the wide difference in 
the qualities of the samples exposed will become more 
marked and it will become necessary to buy from recog- 
nized brands and not from sample. As is rightly pointed 
out the mere branding of cases is not sufficient and is 
obviously likely to aid fraud. Each sheet, block or biscuit 
should contain the brand of the estate clearly marked. 
This should be easily done during the process of pre- 
paration. At the present time when estates are wrest- 
ling with each other for the top price no man can say which 
will obtain the best price in the near future and it behoves 
each one to see that his rubber is plainly branded and that 
manufacturers and buyers at home are made acquainted 
with the various brands or marks. Another advantage 
