112 



THE INDIA RUBwER WORLD 



[January i, 1905. 



however, they are very careful, and are possessed of an axe, 

 they cut a trough out of a "balsa" log and use that. When 

 there is sufficient milk for coagulation, a bunch of vines is 

 gathered, folded together, and pounded on a log with a heavy 

 billet of wood until all of the fibers are well bruised. The mass 

 is then rinsed in water, the fluid being run through a sieve, and 

 then poured into the trough. Extreme care is taken not to stir 



WANCHO'S RUBBER TAPPING TOOL. 



the latex. Instead, as it begins at once to coagulate on the 

 top, the rubber is gently pressed down, gathering to itself other 

 particles, and at the same time it is forced toward one side of 

 the receptacle. Thus by gently manipulating, squeezing, and 

 handling, most of the coagulated rubber is finally gathered 

 into one piece, which is lifted out and kneaded until much of 

 the water is out of it. Some more amole water is then poured 

 into the remaining liquid and by the same sort of careful 

 manipulation another smaller slab of rubber is secured. The 

 two are then stuck together. A week later the milk white 

 mass of rubber will be jet black, of about half its first weight, 

 and apparently as dry as a bone. Unless it is cut into strips 

 and washed and dried again and all of the amole liquor got rid 

 of, it will sweat and deteriorate, and have a smell that makes it 

 most oflensive. 



The machete is used altogether for tapping by the natives in 

 Central America. Just by way of experiment I tried two dif- 

 ferent tools that I brought with me from New York. One was 

 a sort of farrier's knife, that did pretty well, but was not heavy 

 enough ; the other was the type of tool that is now in general 

 use in Ceylon. While it was possible to tap with this latter tool, 

 it did not do for the Castilloa as well as for the Hevea. The 

 strong fiber in the bark, unless the tool be as sharp as a razor, 

 makes the incision a tear rather than a clean cut. It is possible 

 that the tool may be changed in shape slightly and do the 

 work, but in its present shape it is not as good as the machete. 

 Speaking of the fiber in the outer bark of the Castilloa, the na- 

 tives used formerly, when they found a very large tree, to 

 pound the bark until it was loose, then cut it olT and dry it, and 

 have a beautiful snow white sleeping mat, as soft as wool, and 

 looking for all the world as if it were the product of a loom. 



Here I must mention a rubber tapping tool invented by a 

 native Panamanian whom I met, and who is not only a rubber 

 gatherer but a thinker. Although so many men have tried to 

 evolve a satisfactory tapping device for rubber trees, it is sin- 

 gular that the thought of a would be inventor in this line, al- 

 most invariably, turns first to some sort of vacuum or suction 

 arrangement, that will not only act as a tapping tool, but pump 

 the latex out of the tree. Of course a little study of the forma- 

 tion of the lactiferous tubes makes it evident that nothing of 

 this sort is feasible. The suggestion, however, has come from 

 a great variety of sources, and in some cases from scientific 

 men. So it was interesting to run across the same mental pro- 

 cesses and the same sort of deduction among the natives of the 

 rubber countries. The illustration here given shows an instru- 

 ment designed and made by the native referred to, a man 

 named Wancho, who is shown in another illustration standing 



in a grove of CasWlloa. The instrument consists of a cylinder 

 of light balsa wood wonnd with codline, through which runs a 

 piston made of hard wood, one end tipped with a short iron 

 chisel. The chisel end of the cylinder is fitted with a strip of 

 pure rubber, a packing to be drawn tightly around the tree. 

 The puncture made and the piston withdrawn, the hope was 

 that the cylinder would fill with latex. That expectation, how- 

 ever, was blasted, as only the usual amount of hitex followed 

 the cut. 



Two of the long trips across country brought us out at the 

 //a«oj, or grass plains — prairies containing some 25,000 acres, on 

 which grazed some 1 50 head of cattle of the old Spanish strain, 

 but big and fat for all of that. They were not at all wild, yet to 

 milk a cow it was necessary to muzzle her calf and tie it to her 

 front legs and she then seemed to feel that her offspring was 

 getting the leche that really flowed into a calabas/i. In a little 

 oasis of trees in this prairie of rich short grass, was a neat na- 

 tive house in which lived the keeper of the herd and his wife. 

 Thin, almost to emaciation, was Don Raimon, gray haired, with 

 the sparse beard of the true Indian, clad in white; he was the 

 only energetic native that I saw on the peninsula. Donna Ma- 

 ria, his spouse, short, fat, and comely, in calico dress and blouse, 

 barefooted, with a man's hat on her head, her own pipe in 

 mouth, surrounded by hens and dogs, she cooked in a placid 

 way that was most picturesque and restful. We slept at their 

 house one night, but on the second visit signalled the schooner 

 and went aboard to sleep, away from the various insects that 

 always infest a cattle ranch. 



It was during a visit to the llanos that we nearly lost the Pros- 

 pector. It came about this way : From the time of the Span- 

 iards the country has been known asagold producer. Indeed, 



NATIVE RUBBfR CUTTER WITH MACHETE AND CALABASH. 



