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allow for 400 trees to the acre. A small mound of earth is made 

 at each stake, and the rubber seeds are imbedded therein. 



The seed will germinate in from eight to fifteen days, and one 

 month from the time of planting the plant attains a height of 

 about eight inches, and its growth from this time on is rapid and 

 may roughly be put down as one foot per month. Our three- 

 years-old trees are over thirty feet high, and those of four years 

 about thirty-five feet. After the planting has been done, great 

 care is taken that the forest growth does not choke out the young 

 tree. This growth is kept down continually, thus giving the 

 young rubber tree a good start until it is able to take care of itself, 

 which it can do two years after planting, after which time it re- 

 quires very little attention. 



TAPPING METHODS. 



The native Indian method of tapping is as follows : — Before be- 

 ginning to tap, a place is selected on the tree, preferably on the 

 inclined side, and a hole made in the ground below, lined with a 

 wide green leaf. The tapper makes two incisions with his machete 

 at right angles, coming together in the centre. This is done to 

 ascertain where the milk runs best. Once decided, the tapper 

 makes a narrow incision at the point of convergence and impro- 

 vises a funnel of the same leaf used in lining the hole in the 

 ground. This acts as a conduit for the milk, which runs from the 

 tree in a steady stream into the hole until it coagulates along the 

 line of incision, when, if desired, it is scraped off twice or more 

 before the stream finally ceases. Very often the milk spurts out, 

 and one could not stand close to the tree where the machete is at 

 work without getting one's clothes spoiled. The rubber coagu- 

 lates where it falls on the clothes, and will not wash out ; only 

 a solvent will remove it. 



The bark of the tree is not only cut once, but at least four or 

 five times, at intervals of two feet. The next year the angles 

 cross each other, giving the tree a peculiar criss-cross appearance. 

 Once the milk is flowing freely, the tapper leaves the tree and 

 goes to another, repeating the process already described. By the 

 above method a dozen trees are considered an average day's work. 

 When the milk ceases to flow the tapper returns and carefully 

 picks up the leaf in the hole and pours its contents into a large 

 gourd. This is naturally a crude and wasteful process. An un- 

 skilled tapper either gets all the milk on his own clothes or else 

 it runs round the tree and is lost. It is usual to begin tapping in 

 May and continue until December inclusive. 



THE LATEX. 

 The latex, or milky juice of the bark of the rubber tree, is 

 quite distinct from the sap which circulates through the wood, and 

 contains from 32 to 44 per cent, of gum. Pure rubber milk is 

 white when it first runs from the tree, closely resembles that of 

 the cow ; but in the drying process it gradually oxidizes and turns 

 black. 



