55 
which of the products (i.e, from old or new sources) is best suited 
to his existing methods, which methods are the result of a long 
exDerience with his original sources of supply ; but it becomes 
ultimately a question as to which product will suit him best in the long 
run if both are worked under the most favourable conditions. 
This is the state of affairs in which the rubber industry in the 
course of time will find itself, or more particularly that branch of the 
industry which deals with the production of high-class ''ubber articles 
of which Para rubber is an important ingredient. Up to within the 
last three or four years the world drew its supply of raw rubber from 
trees growing wild in various tropical areas Some t ;er ‘ p|° n a 
beginning was made with planting— particularly in the Malay Penin- 
sula and later in Ceylon — chiefly with Hevea Braztltensu, or the Para 
rubber tree, but as no commercial yield of rubber is obtained unti 
tbe tree reaches its fifth or sixth year the effect of this planting tsonly 
iust beginning to be felt, and the imported plantation rubber at the 
present Tme only forms about one per cent, of the total production. 
From the large areas now in process of being opened up, this produc- 
tion must increase considerably in the course of the next ten or fi ee 
years, until eventually the plantation rubber forms a considerable pro- 
portion of the supplies to rubber manufacturers. 
The properties of rubber are not only dependent upon such th ^ngs 
as soil, locality, climate, etc., but are largely affected by the methods 
used in curing and preparing it for the market ; and as the methods o 
coagulation and preparation differ radically from those used m the 
case of wild rubbers this consideration particularly applies to Planta- 
tion rubber. Without going into any details it may be stated that n 
the former case the methods are primitive and indequate, except in 
the case of the smoked rubbers, while the planters by common-sense 
precautions, and in some cases by the use of simple coagulating 
washing, and drying plant, have sent to this country consignments 
which are unequalled from the point of view of purity and general 
excellence It has, however, been asserted, without apparent reason 
that in spite of these desirable qualities, the plantation rubber is 
wanting in the “ nerve ” especially attributed to hard cure Para. 
The object of the present paper is the discussion of a number of 
preliminary tests made with the plantation rubber with a view to 
testing its qualities and comparing it with a typical high-class rubber, 
such as hard cure Amazonian Para. The methods employed m va na- 
tion of rubbers as carried out by brokers and merchants would be 
useless for this purpose. The broker looks for ^ul^te,^ teste 
the physical qualities by the general appearance smell, and feel of the 
rubber. Such tests cannot, except in the roughest manner, be of any 
value in forming an estimate of the qualities of plantation or any ot 
rubber from a manufacturer’s standpoint. A carefully conducted 
chemical analysis will, however, be of some help. 
