August i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



The trees were large individuals, four or five feet in dia- 

 meter of trunk, and one hundred and twenty or more feet 

 high. Their trunks were long, straight and mibranched for 

 sixty or seventy feet from the ground. The lowest six feet of 

 one had been scarred, and from the scars the milk had run and 

 was di'ied in tears or strings several inches long on the bark. 

 Most of the congealed rubber was, however, contained in 

 the fissures made by the cutlass cuts, from which places it 

 was rather hard to extract it because of the tenacity with 

 which it held to the inner bark from which it had oozed. I 

 gathered and made a ball, following the Indian plan of wind- 

 ing it up like twine, of what was ou this tiunk. They scar 

 the trunk and then leave it, the milk oozes from the wounds, 

 trickles down the bark and coagulates and becomes dry in a 

 few days. My guide said it took three days to dry, but I 

 should have supposed a shorter time might accomphsh the 

 change, the little rivulets are so very thin. That which was 

 in the old cuts — cuts probably a year or more old — had tiu-ned 

 black, but that in those recently made was nearly milk-white. 

 The Indian boys, who are perhaps accustomed to play with 

 the balls, as I noticed from several which they brought me 

 they never make them large, stripped the dry strings very 

 dexterously from the bark, taking good care to extract the 

 larger portion to which I have alluded partly concealed in 

 the incisions, and stretching it with a good deal of tension, 

 wound it up. These balls have womlerful elasticity and 

 bound with very little impulsion several feet off the ground. 

 The rubber too seems exceedingly tenacious and strong. 

 This method of collecting is that pursued in Ceara, the pro- 

 vince of Brazil which produces Maiiiliot Glaziovii. It is very 

 economical of time, forit saves the tedious operation of catch- 

 ing the milk in a vessel as it issues from the wound, which 

 is the most bothersome of all the operations. The principal 

 objection to it is, that the rubber becomes .soiled by the dii-t 

 adhering to the bark, a httle of which it retains, and no 

 doubt this would deteriorate its market value ; but this cause 

 of depreciation might be reduced to a minimum by carefully 

 brushing the surface down prior to counnencing collecting 

 operations. Rubber which has foreign matter incorporated 

 with it. is classed under the term negrohead in the market, 

 though its value depends on the measure of its freedom from 

 dii't or other substance having regard of course to the quality 

 of the rubber itself when clean. 



The branches of the trees I saw were so high that the 

 character of the foliage could not be distinguished from the 

 ground, and, as there was no means of ascending ti-uuks so 

 stout, I had to resort to the aid of a gun, and with this shot 

 some branchlets off. It was, I was sorry to find, not the 

 flowering season, but judging from the fohage alone, the 

 trees appear to be a species of Ftcu^ or Urostiyma, but in 

 the absence of flowers and fruit its could only be iiieutified 

 coujecturally. The colony abounds in different plants of the 

 above genera, of which, presumably, othc species to this are 

 also valuable. Some of them are known to attain large 

 dimensions. The seeds are dispersed by bii-ds and other ani- 

 mals and they germinate on other kinds of trees, principally 

 pahns, among the leaves, from whence they thi-ow a root 

 to the ground which again emits branches, and these with the 

 main root in course of time amalgamate and form the 

 base of the tree. It is curious to notice how these root- 

 brauches fuse together and form eventually a concrete 

 trunk. I regard the discovery of this tree of gi-eat interest 

 and probable imjiortance, attaining as it does such a vast 

 size, and producing a material of apparently excellent 

 quality. The Indians know it imder two names, the Carabisi 

 calhng it Touckpongand the yliocari-,* CumakabaUi. Noble 

 m all its proportions, spreading and hfting its massive 

 head above its ueighbom-s, it is one of the largest trees 

 of the forest, and has a wide and general disti-ibution over 

 ■the deep belt of low country in the colony. Samples of 

 the rubber of both this and the Hatie I have sent to 

 England to be tested as to their probable commercial value. 



Attempts have been made to exti-act caoutchouc by 

 chemical means from the bark containing it. If this could 

 be carried out successfully, and with pl.aying results, every 

 part of the bark might be utilised, just as the bark of 

 ( 'inchonu is in the production of quinine. The milk vessels 

 abound all ovei- a tree, as may be seen alike by cutting 

 the baik of the stem, or that of a twig, and in breaking 

 off a Iciif ; though they are proportionately more plentiful 

 in any given species the thicker the bark is. Seeing this, 

 it has always appeared to nie a loss that so small a portion 



of the surface is operated upon. "WTiere the tree is not 

 cut down, only about eight feet of the trimk is utiUzed- 

 and even when a tree is felled it is not thought worth 

 while by collectors to spend time tapping the less productive 

 parts which can be devoted to the best parts of fresh 

 ones. 1 speak of existing circumstauces; they might act 

 differently if the trees were less plentiful. I gathered 

 .samples of the bark of Hatie and Touckpong, and also of 

 the Balata or biUlet-trec, for the Government Analyst, 

 all-. Francis, to make trial of ; but, as the foUowing extract 

 from a letter he has sent me shows, he does not regard, 

 from the single e.xjieriment which he describes, the 

 object as feasible from a commercial point of view He 

 writes: — 



"I found no difficulty in extracting the mdiarubber from 

 the sample of bark you sent me called Touckpong I 

 placed eight ounces (Z^^)0 grains) of the finely broken bark 

 in a glass vessel, and just covered it with a liquid called 

 bisulphide of carbon. After standmg for twelve hours, the 

 bisulfjhide of carbon was squeezed out from the bark 

 through a cloth. The partially exhausted bark was again 

 treated with bisulphide of carbon in the same way, and 

 then the whole of the litter was evaporated down to dry- 

 ness in a porcelam basiu, and left a residue consisting of 

 about 100 gi-ains of indiarubber. The result barely re- 

 presents three per cent of rubber in the bark, and it is 

 doubtful whether such a small quantity would pay for 

 extraction. 



"I should recommend petroleum ether as being a better 

 solvent to" use in this process than bisulphide of carbon. The 

 latter woidd contaminate the indiarublier with free sulphur 

 that is nearly always present in it as an impurity. 



'•Petroleum ether is a cheap— almost a waste— product, but 

 unfortunately owing to its great inflammability it cannot be 

 imported into this colony except under a duty o'f three dollars 

 a gallon. 



"Of course, in the practical working of a process like this, 

 the solvent employed— whether bisulphide of carbon or peti-- 

 oleum ether — would be recovered by distillation from the 

 indiarubber and so could be used over and over again." 



In face of this unfavourable result, it would be worth whUe 

 to experiment with all the indiarubber and guttapercha 

 barks produced in the colony. If no other good came of it, 

 it would determine the relative yield of the different 

 trees. 



In a few places I met with the bullet or balata tree and 

 the Indians told me it was scattered sparsely over a wide 

 extent of the banks o.' the river and its creeks. I was sur- 

 prised to hear that tli" trees were being filli-d by the Indians 

 for the balata they yie d at the mstanco of traders who travel 

 ou the river purchasi ig the products procurable from the 

 native inhabitants. The privilege Indians are allowed in 

 regard to cutting timlier of a specified limit as to size "so 

 to be used by them or to be ilisposed of by them in the shape 

 of a squared timber." .appears to confer no right to cut for 

 this pnrpo.se. and therefore in felling, or iu tapping trees for 

 the juice of their barks, they are committing a depredation 

 tor which they should''^!- held responsible on detection. Much 

 more should the men »'ho iustigate them to it for their own 

 profit, knowing that they could not do it with impunity 

 themselves, be severely punished for their villainy. As to this 

 however, there .seems ro e.xist some diificulty. ' In response 

 to a communication which I addres.sed to him on the subject, 

 Mr. im Thurn writes : — 



"The bullet-tree (Mimu.sops balata) appears to be widely 

 but somewhat thinly scattered throughout the Pomeroon 

 District as a whole; but in places it occurs in great plenty. 

 One of the places is said to be at the head of the Akaiwiiii 

 creek, which runs into the Pomeroon just opposite Hackney. 

 And that this information is correct is apparent from the 

 large amomit of balata which is collected and brought 

 down from the Crown lands up that creek. I have my- 

 self seen a bateau coming- from there with over 300 lb. 

 of this substance. It is collected by the most injurious 

 method of felling the trees, chiefly by one man, a coloured 

 man from the coast, who makes his living, and it is 

 apparer.tly no bad one, by collecting this balata and a 

 small quantity of locust gum. This is of com-se whole- 

 sale robbery and wilful destruction of t'rown property; 

 and I am the Superintendent of Crown lands iu tliis 

 district. But though I can lay my hands on this robber' 



