PLANTATION EUBBER INDUSTRY OF THE EAST. 50^ 



wound), it was regarded as much too drastic by one school, 

 and G. Wall invented a comb-pricker, afterwards provided 

 with a guard to prevent the cooly penetrating to the wood ; 

 apparently this was used vertically, in long lines from the top 

 to the base of the stem, after the fashion of GiUiatt's cuts, and 

 it was claimed that it gave just as good results. Trimeu 

 refers to another pricker used at this time, a spur wheel with 

 guarded points. It is curious to note that Wall, when 

 advocating the use of the comb-pricker, stated that he was 

 satisfied that " incisions " would never do ; nowadaj's his 

 system and all the others tried would be styled incision 

 methods, but what he objected to was the single continuous 

 cut. 



When pricking methods were employed, the latex was 

 usually allowed to coagulate on the tree, and was pulled off 

 in the form of strings or " tears." One planter invented a 

 roller which, when rolled up and down the stem, gathered up 

 the tears. Where oblique and V cuts were em]iloyed, small 

 specially-made tin collecting cups were used to catch the 

 latex, at first fastened to the tree by cobbler's wax. &c., 

 but afterwards pushed into the bark, as in Hevea tapping 

 before the adoption of the spout. One form of collecting cup 

 was provided with a leather lip. 



The latex was poured into plates, or tin trays, and co- 

 agulated naturally. At first it was exposed to the sun, but 

 that was found to be detrimental, and some advocated 

 coagulation in the dark. Adding water to the latex was 

 found to give a cleaner rubber than allowing the undiluted 

 latex to coagulate. Gilliatt produced excellent samples of 

 rubber by coagulating with alcohol, but it was generally 

 agreed that that method was too expensive. The same 

 experimenter smoked rubber after coagulation, but Avhon he 

 sent the sample to Colombo, he was accused of attempting to 

 hoax the brokers by sending them samples obtained from 

 England. Most of the rubber appears to have been in the 

 form of cakes ; one correspondent stated that his cakes weighed 

 half a pound when wet, and he subsequently sent to Colombo 

 18 cakes, weighing altogether 2| lb. Gilliatt made small 

 sheets in square trays. 



