Adulteration Of Rubber

In spite of the constant talk of a substitute having been found for it, rubber seems likely to be for some time to come the stand by of the electrician for insulating purposes. The manufacturera who prepare the rubber for the electrical and other markets coinplain of the increasing adulteration of the raw material, especially of that coming from Assam and Burma. According to H. N. Thompson, the Chinese have a practical monopoly of the trade. The foretts at the head of the upper Namkong ba? iu are rich in rubber, ana tne trees auaiii a height of 200 feet, with enormous girth. The great tribe of rubber collect ora is the Sana KachiDS, who go vast distances for their rubber harvest in the dry 8eason. The chiefs levy toll on tbe produce as it passes down the river. The Chinese, who control the trade, pay the Kachins for it in provisions and cloth, and as they ara adepts in the art of concealing stones in it, by the time it reaches Rangún its weight aDd bulk are largely aogmented by foreign stances. The Assam supply is fed mainly by the Nagas, who, having got in their crops in December, set off for the rubber foresta withiu the drainage area of the Tareu river, where they know everytree, the knowledge being in many oases passed on from father to son. The rubber in this district is eaid to be growing so scarce that it often takes a man 40 days to collect a cooly load. In spite of this, the Singpho villages levy a tax on each collector. When flrst collected. the rubber is very pure, but tho Nagas have acquired the trick of adulterating it %vith earth and stones, and the Assam rubber is not regarded Nvith favor in the Caloutta market. It is a gore point with the Chinese mercbants that the Nagas so exhaust the capacity of the rubber to receive adulteration that there is no opening left for the exercise of their own ingenuity in the