( 14 ) 
collected in the forest. The first impression of this 
method of work was that it was a great improve- 
ment on old methods, but it soon developed that the 
native collectors were cutting down small trees to 
make the leaf collecting easier, and the method is 
no longer used. Within the past five years three 
factories for the extraction of leaf gutta have been 
started in the Malay Peninsula. The first of these 
factories was located at Kuantan, Pahang. The 
process of leaf collecting for this factory is as 
follows : — The trees selected are pruned into h rather 
conical shape, so that as large as possible a surface 
may be exposed for leaf production. The amount 
of leaves collected is large, and collecting is repeated 
at intervals of one year. The two other factories 
are in the Kuala Lipis district of Pahang. One 
factory uses leaves collected by Malays or Sakai 
from forest grown trees, and the other is on the 
large gutta percha plantation and is intended to use 
the leaves from planted trees. The original factory 
at Tjipetir works approximately as follows: — The 
material used consists of leaves, twigs, and bark. 
At intervals the trees are pruned to keep them 
in a convenient shape and size for leaf plucking 
which takes place about four times a year. The 
prunings furnish the twig and bark material that 
is used. The leaves that are plucked are only the 
mature leaves and they are first dried, then ground 
up into a fine meal, and then given an elaborate 
series of washings in hot water, after which the 
gutta percha is separated out from the leaf frag- 
ments in. cold water and purified by another hot water 
and mechanical treatment. The resulting purified 
product is rolled and pressed into blocks ready for 
treatment. The manufacturing plant is a large and 
expensive one, but the product is of excellent quality. 
