no 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1883 



difficulty experienced is in the meth.«l and means of col- 

 lectiuK the luice; every drop is ot -alue, ana it i;, im- 

 po ant that there sh.uUl b,- no wa.tc either by .mper- 

 fection of contrivance for catching -t as it ssues t.om 

 the ba.k or by the emi-luymcut ol unsu.taLle vessels. 

 The tstint an 'incision is^iade, tne ..ilk "^eg.ns to rnn, 

 and it naturally runs faster at firn f!ian it does lateu 

 sothat fte colUct,.r must be prepi -1 t. immediately 

 applv?in adexte-ous and effectual n,.,.aer, hi. '^eans ot 

 catchiuK it Again, .f unsuitable ^c.-^■els are used as to 

 charactfr or size, waste wiU be e^p n.-.ced by the d>t- 

 S of ?he milk over.unnecessa y - '^-V^ ^t o 

 adheres in a verv surprising inanuer the l.ttie loss 

 rductionvvhich- occurs in drying .. the change horn | 

 milk to rubber, and the considerab e bulk o' the lattei 

 resulting from the process, also strike one, though it is 

 Sab e that the quahty of the milk, as weU as its 

 Suantiy, depends upon the age of the tree. I was unde 

 ?he inm'ession that the character of the vessels employed 

 n costing the juice was a matter of ''"le consequenc , 

 and therefore I prepared none of « 'lefini e character 

 1 shall have occasion to speak tuvther on ot anotner 

 mode of collecting, but for this which I am describing I am 

 disposed to approve of the kind of cups used on the Amazon, 

 and also of the method there practised m the operation 

 These cups are round or flat or shghtly concave ; the latter 

 forr^s be^g most in use. as they fit more e osely when 

 iltorl .^frisl- the tree They are made of burnt clay. Our 

 gSbisi Sns, who are pctterl to themselves and the various 

 oth^ibes would no doubt produce simil.^r vessels at a very 

 cheap rate They are stuck to the tree immediately under 

 ?he mdsion made in the bark by the collectors axe, by a 

 smaU lump of well wrought clay. On the Pomeroon where 

 ?he treerirow. in the binks of the creeks, I found a very 



SCcHh ^i^e'in'^ "rl-yshing theb|k, I think as U 

 axe with a shirt handle for use with one hand would be the 

 Sst adapted instrument. This coid.l be used with '^J<^-^^^ 

 His of very material importance in carr.ymg out the work 

 that everv&iing employed shoud be of a character to enable 

 he ope rator t/maidpnlate it with dextenty. The Para pkn 

 of ma^siu" a single circle of incisions each day is, too, I cou- 

 sfd^ the best to pmrsue. Nothing is gamed by making 

 numerous cuts close together: the flow of jmce should he 

 al "ved to take place by a few rather thon several exudahons. 

 Tt it occurs from too many for a certain area, so httle is ob- 

 teined from each as to be a mere drop or two m a vessel, 

 i" 1? ,1 ffnsed over the large surface oi the several rec.pt- 

 Tcts in™.^^^ aproprtionftelylargelossbysurfaceadhes,,m, 



ta add tioa to the time and labour taken up by the extrawork 

 Adrcle of incisions is made each day. extending from as h gli 

 as one can reach and working downwarus day by day to the 

 W of the tree. They should be made about slx or eight in- 

 ches apart the incisions in the circles bemg in quincunx order 

 I recommend this .system as the most economica 

 for co'ecting the fresh juice, but were the waste of 

 the trees nt a vital consideration, a less conservative 

 r,lan m-ht be practised. Much more is obtamed ,n one 

 C..,tToS by cutting the tree down and tapping ,*s l.aA 

 Z miength of the trunk, than by the above method. 

 The y eld 1 found in this way s-veral times greater as 

 STe immediate result. But to the permanent loss of the 

 tree "s a rubber producing agent, though the timl)er might 

 tree as * r">- i , recount, must be added the consider- 

 Jwe Tste which occurs in collecting the milk by the number 

 nf vesses or wide leaf surface required to cateh ,t. I em- 

 1 Tfanana or pieces of trooly (JIanicana saccfera) 

 tZ^ fom which 'fn part the men', as wel, made the cups 

 wWh were used when the trees were tapped standing laid 

 ^ Ti!I .-.nitrate tnink which I ringed at intervals of ten 

 under the P°^'f *7 "^^jYave sdd.it is a wasteful method, 

 °^ *"rrrf the mi'k adheres to the leaf surface. Yet I fear 

 ?LT«tn tS ^lectors turn their attention to Hatie and 

 Sher iidiarubber trees, t'lis will he the system they will 

 ^rW as tt™s already established hv practice mtheco'ony 

 *1 P ' T. li»lnta is eathered. From largo trees thus destroy- 

 "f''Xmd of n hVr migl t be obtained on an average each, 

 ^'\ I'^do not ii k mnre^ The mark, t value of this >up- 

 ^" „ to be oh.^ same quaUtv as Para rubher, and cICMi y 

 posing *"^«°y^gf„^ tWeshillinu.s to four shillings and 

 ^f:Z^ ^^^^ 't may be .r,..- 1 with some truth 

 ^"'r'e^Sthe pr'eseat^s a paying pncc, the timber poss- 



essing no commercial value, seems an insignificant sum to 

 UeT^y a tree for. I .loubt, ho«-ever, considering the low 

 relative price which balata fetches, though the trees which 

 produces it is so much more prolific in milk, and so much 

 larger than the Hatie, whether the trees destroyed hy balata 

 collectors return, for balata alone, so much as three and 



sLiueuce each on an axerage. .... -j ^ 



In my tormer repo.t, guKled by ^f tain leading eyidenoe, 

 I expressed be.ief that other species of Ileyea might be found 

 in Guiaua; but up to now none has durectly come under 

 my pe.so^al notice. I have been inlormed, however, that 

 there gro.vs on the Mazaruni, m that part where the 

 rise in the country first begins, above the ^.^t fadB, a 

 tiee which the Arawack Indians call Hatie-baUi, from ts 

 resemblance to the Hatie, producing a simil.ar but_ smaller 

 fruit. From what 1 can gather, and the mference which may 

 iustly be .irawn from the usual acuteness of Indians as to 

 the alhnity of plants, I am under the impression that this 

 will prove to be a second species of Heeea. , • , t 



I have now to spe.k of anotner inaiarubber tree which I 

 became acquamtea with on this journey, the discovery of 

 which 1 regard as of great interest and importance. \\ hue 

 "m-ying out my investigations with the Hatie Mr. im Thurn 

 informed me that he had seen in the coreal ot some Can- 

 bisi Indians at his water.side, two or three small bal s ot 

 indiarubber, which were exceedingly elastic. I his appeared 

 to me to accord with the stones brought home by the eaily 

 travellers in the West Indies, when the islands were occupied 

 hy Caribs, and which also some existing travellers m this 

 colony have told me they had witnessed, of indiarubber 

 haUs used in the festive games of the India.is when assem- 

 bled at paiwarie feasts, an instance of which I had never 

 met with m my own travels. I theretore deternnned at once 

 to visit the country where these Indians described their re- 

 sidence to be. and gather what information they might be 

 able to give as to this rubber and the tree which prouuced it. 

 I was not certain, however, that it was not the Production 

 of the Hatie ; but I thought this improbable as I had met 

 no Indians anywhere who possessed any kuowle.lge of the 

 rubber produced by the Hatie. Toe weather at this time 

 was ex.«e.ungly wet and the djwntall of rain neaily coiitinu- 

 ous. On reachmg the waterside on Myrack Creek just 

 betore miduight, after a wet day and a tedious pull for several 

 houis tu.ough the darkness, I found the land flooded mthm 

 tlie banks, and the sheets of water bridged over by long logs. 

 Most of these sylvan bridges were covered six or eight inche.s 

 deep with water, and the footing was, to me, m the pr.5tound 

 darkness of the forest treacherous and uncertain to a ..legree. 

 A walk of about foiu- miles thiough deep forest on an ln.1ian 

 trail brought us to the settlement, only to discover that my 

 guhle had mistaken the creek au.l, consequently, come to the 

 wrong people This was, however I found the neighboui- 

 hood ot the tree I was in search ot, and the next day the 

 collector of the gum, as the river inhabitants term every sub- 

 stance whth exSdcs'from atree, was found at Comageguru 

 the next creek. He had in his possession seven or e ght 

 balls of various sizes, the larger ones weighing •^J-^-^SJ 

 pound an.lahalf. I could not discover that i« I"" jf^J 

 inv defioite object in view in gathermg them. The larger 

 balls were, I should think, too big for employnient ,u any 

 In.han games. His object may have been merely the specid- 

 ation that he imght barter them on the river, or down at 

 the coast, as thiy do balata. considering it an analogous 

 substance In the afternoon when the ram stopped he took 

 me to "he same trees from which he had collected the rubte 

 in the balls. They were situated n.j.ar a new y-ma.le clear ug 

 intended f. r a provision ground, about an hour and a halts 

 wa^k th ougn the forest 5om the lanaing place on the creek 

 to which I bad come the night before. Passmg over the 

 cLredgiomd on which the bush had not > et been bm-ned 

 "e hai^ to dive again into the forest to reach the trees, 

 have noticed a goo.l deal of ilestruction in places of valuabh 

 thnber hi the clearings made tor provision grounus, anc 

 tWs more particularly with the half-breeds who live on th< 

 owei parts of the rivers and grow plantains, which acquire 

 stiff soil uuon which some of the better woods grow. Onlj 

 ecentTy I'^me on a bit of forest which bad '»«" "-'?', 

 bt^hed'for a provision field, the standing timber o whicj 

 consi,teu of g'eenheart and other valuable trees. ^\ hethe 



;;;^^:i:^o^ le^-dSood onthe skirt of thegrounc 



