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every shipment, The last is the most important of all from the' 
manufacturer’s point of view as it saves time and money in 
experimenting with each shipment, and if he can rely on an 'estate’s 
output giving the same results regularly he will buy that rubber and 
pay full value for it. This serves to show that, having found the 
light methods in the factory, a manager is ill-advised to alter any 
part of his process, as any change may have a strong bearing on the 
results given by his rubber under tests and put the buyers off for 
some considerable time. 
Straining of Latex. 
The first important part of the making of smoked sheet is the 
straining of the latex. This should be done through fine gauze, 60 
mesh, and two sieves should *be used — one above the other. The 
reason for this is that if the sieve gets clogged the cooly in charge 
invariably rubs the gauze with a piece of rubber till the latex runs 
freely through, and fine sand and dirt get pushed through with the 
latex. The lower sieve catches anything of the kind, and no 
rubbing of the gauze should be allowed on the lower sieve. If this 
gets clogged it should be replaced by a clean sieve and used on fop, 
the one formerly on top being removed and thoroughly washed to be 
used again. A sufficient number of spares should be at hand to 
change continuously. 
Standardization. 
I dilute with cup washings simultaneously with the straining of 
the latex, both going together through the two sieves. No water is 
put in the cups during tapping so that the latex is too rich in itself, 
and the cup- washings increase the output of sheet by about 2 per 
cent, without any harm being done, as dirt cannot pass through both 
sieves. There is probably one gallon of cup- washings to two 
gallons of pure latex in the mixture, and the out-turn on the total 
gallonage for the last two years has been 1| lbs. of dry rubber per 
gallon, variations from month to month being fractional, and 
dependant ou weather conditions. Rain during collection upsets 
most calculations, and ail attempt to preserve uniformity is made 
during coagulation. In normal weather I can rely on standard latex 
without the aid of a <£ Metrolac.” Owing to the fact that I have 
contract tapping at varying rates I have to separate latex from trees 
over 10 years old from that from young trees. In pan coagulation 
7 of a gallon of water is put into each pan. If rain has fallen during 
collection this is dispensed with and instead of a gallon of latex and 
cup-washings being put into each pan the latexometer is brought 
into the picture and sufficient latex and cup-washings put in to 
equalize as nearly as possible a normal day’s size of sheet. 1 
deprecate the use of the “ Metrolac ” more than is necessary. It 
means nothing to the ordinary cooly, who, if he has been at the 
job long enough is a very good judge of the density of latex by 
