CONSTABLE & CO. LTD. LONDON : BOMBAY : SYDNEY 1922 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BILLING AND SONS, LTD., GUILDFORD AND ESHER PREFACE Mr. Sidney Morgan's work on Plantation Rubber in the East is so well known that he hardly needs introduction. An earlier book, published in 1914, by the Rubber Growers' Association, entitled "The Preparation of Plantation Rubber," was well received and widely read. This book dealt in a very practical manner with problems with which the industry had to contend. A second edition was subsequently published. Both editions are now out of print. The present opportunity was therefore taken to revise the original work, with the result that it has been enlarged and practically rewritten. The information given is brought up-to-date, and covers the whole process of production, commencing with the planting of the tree, passing on to the collection, coagulation, and curing of the rubber, and concluding with the packing for export. In the course of his work for the Association, Mr. Morgan carried out a great deal of industrial research in rubber production, including lengthy experiments on tapping, the use of different coagulants and different conditions of coagulation, and also on varying modes of rolling, drying, and smoking rubber. He also went very fully into the types of construction and details of the machinery and buildings employed on estates. Much of this valuable work has escaped notice, owing to its having been published in reports with limited circulation. Also a great deal of information was supplied to planters in a quiet and unobtrusive fashion, in interviews, visits to estates, and on other similar occasions. The knowledge and experience thus accumulated has been embodied in the present volume. The subject-matter should interest not only those actually engaged in rubber planting, but those otherwise directly or indirectly connected with the industry, such as importers, brokers, and particularly the rubber manufacturers in this country and in America. My experience has been that manufacturers as a whole have but a vague idea as to the methods employed in the preparation of plantation rubber, and this work provides them with the opportunity of obtaining an insight into the actual operations on the estates. It is most desirable that a closer bond should unite the plantation and manufacturing rubber industries. Such a result is best promoted by a better understanding of the problems with which each is confronted. Perhaps I may go so far as to suggest that some leading scientific officer in the employment of one of the large manufacturing concerns may take in hand a book which will give the planters the equivalent of information in regard to the manufacturing industry which the planters are now offering to the manufacturers.