106 
THE PREPARATION OF PLANTATION PARA RUBBER 
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO FUTURE 
CONSIDERATIONS. 
By B. J. Eaton, f.i.c., f.c.s. 
( Agricultural Chemist, F.M.S .) 
TT is proposed in this paper to submit very briefly the results of 
the researches on raw rubber manufacture which have been con- 
ducted for the past years at the Agricultural Department by the 
writer and his assistants and to consider in what way these results 
are likely to affect the future methods of preparation of the raw 
product, having in view both the highest quality of rubber which 
can be prepared and the manufacturers’ requirements, as far as we 
have been able to obtain information in this respect. 
As a starting point two axioms are propounded, with which I 
think every planter and manufacturer is now in entire agreement. 
They are (1) The highest grade of wild rubber, viz., Fine 
Hard Para, which is the premier raw rubber among wild rubbers, so 
called, on the market, is very uniform. (2) Plantation Para rubber 
from the cultivated Hevea is very variable. Arising out of both of 
these axioms we have now to consider : ( a ) In what respect is 
plantation Para rubber variable and how can this variability be 
remedied ? (6) What are the causes of the variability in the case of 
the plantation product and what the reason of the uniformity of the 
product from the uncultivated tree ? 
I do not propose to enter into any details as to the researches 
which have enabled us to elucidate to a considerable extent these 
important problems, since much has already been published by the 
writer and his collaborators and since confirmed by other indepen- 
dent workers and in a month or two a special illustrated bulletin 
will be published giving the details of these researches to date. It 
is only necessary here to summarize the results obtained and, if 
further information is required on any special point, this may be 
probably obtained during the discussion of the paper. 
Speaking historically, the remarks expressed by Mr. Williams, 
Works Superintendent of the North British Rubber Company, one 
of the leading and most advanced of our British rubber manufactur- 
ing firms, especially in the organization of scientific research, will 
form- a suitable text on which to hang this discourse. These remarks 
which were made at the 4<th International Rubber and Allied Trades 
Congress held in London in July, 1914, were as follows ; 
