AMAZON’S RUBBER VERSUS PLANTATION 
RUBBER. 
In the Journal d’ Agriculture Tropicale (September, 1009) M. 
G. Lamy Torillhon discusses the causes of the difference in value 
between hard cure Para of the Amazons and plantation Rubber. e 
says that a manufacturer of fine para, if offered hard cure, knows right 
away that the product is fine, older collected, and dryer than Island 
Para, which is wetter and valued a little lower.. With plantation 
rubber it is necessary for him to see and even analyse the samples 
before fixing the price. The Brazil rubber contains 15 to 20 per cent, 
of foreign matter, and water, while plantation rubber is quite pure 
and only gives V 2 to 1 per cent, of moisture, yet the price of the 
former is higher. He gives an explanation of the difference between 
the texture of the two rubbers in the following way: Pure raw 
caoutchouc is considered as composed of globules agglutinated by a 
physical or chemical method when they were in suspension m the 
latex. It is by a kind of coalescence that they are joined together, 
they then present themselves under two conditions of matter very 
distinct and complementary. One of these states corresponds to a 
fibrous, elastic, nervous matter, the other may be compared to a plas- 
tir* maHur oiixravfi rparfv to unite with the former. The mo ecu 3.r 
tissue is not too hazardous. It is just in “ fine Para " that one finds 
the highest degree of perfection in this combination of the two 
substances. 
Hp nnintc nut the imoortant factor of the age of the trees, a fifty 
UiU. Ullv, ULlt L 1 1 A X- 
tion and Amazons rubber, as he says, time will cure. 
As to form, he prefers block, condemning crepe on the ground 
of its liability to collect dust and damp, and to favour-oxydation and 
tackiness. Biscuits are better, but even they expose too much sur- 
face to the air. 
