METHODS OF TAPPING. 63 



object is not merely to avoid the destruction of the trees, but to learn 

 how the maximum quantity of rubber may be secured with the least 

 injury to future productiveness. The planter needs to know how 

 soon young rubber trees should be tapped, how the incisions should 

 be made, how close together, how large, and in what direction; how 

 often tapping may be repeated, at what seasons, and much more. 



The first notion of the visitor from the United States is that it will 

 be a very simple matter to improve on the rude gashes made by the 

 machete of the rubber gatherer, but this has not proved to be easy. 

 The rubber milk is not the sap of the tree and can not be drawn out 

 by boring holes in the trunk, as is done with the sugar maple. The 

 milk does not pervade the tissues of the tree, but is contained in 

 delicate tubes running lengthwise in the inner layers of the bark, and 

 to secure milk in any quantity it is necessary to open many of these 

 tubes by wounding the bark. The rubber is formed in floating 

 globules inside the tubes and can not pass through their walls, so 

 that even a suction apparatus would not bring it out unless the tubes 

 were cut. 



PRIMITIVE METHODS OF TAPPING. 



The method by which the natives of Soconusco have been accustomed 

 to extract the milk is shown in Plate XVI. The ulero makes with his 

 machete diagonal lines of gashes (Plates I and XII) that open chan- 

 nels along which the milk can flow until it is all brought to one side 

 of the tree, whence it is led down to a cavity hollowed in the ground 

 and lined with the tough leaves of Calathrea. These are dexterously 

 lifted up, and the milk is poured out into a calabash or other vessel 

 and carried away to be coagulated. The diagonal channels are from 

 2 to 3 feet apart, and those of each successive tapping are inserted 

 between the older scars. The diagonal lines are carried well around 

 the tree; to tap it on the other side requires much deeper cuts in 

 order to pass the milk across the older grooves, down which it would 

 otherwise run and be lost. That the trees at La Zacualpa had been 

 able to survive so much of this barbarous treatment and were still 

 vigorous and heavily laden with fruit seems to indicate great tenacity 

 of life. And yet even this rough handling represents an improve- 

 ment upon the former custom of cutting the trees down entirely or 

 hewing steps in them for the ulero to climb up. Instead of the forked 

 stick used as a ladder at La Zacualpa the large forest trees were 

 ascended for 30 feet or more by means of ropes, vines, climbing irons, 

 and steps cut in the trunk. The following is a description of a method 

 of tapping the trees in the forests of Nicaragua: 



When the collectors find an untapped tree in the forest they first make a ladder 

 out of the lianas or "vejucos" that hang from every tree. This they do by tying 

 short pieces of wood across them with small lianas, many of which are as tough as 

 cord. They then proceed to score the bark with cuts which extend nearly around the 



