1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER "WORLD 



281 



CAUCHO GATHERING ON THE UPPER AMAZON. 



By Lyonel Gamier {Mandos). 



THE Caucho* tree is always, or nearly always, surrounded 

 by saplings, which of course are not cut with the par- 

 ent tree. Therefore the Peruvians calculate that in 

 thirty years it should be possible to obtain a fresh crop 

 from the ground already worked over. As Caucho cutting was 

 only begun here in 1885 or in 1886, and then only on a com- 

 paratively small scale, it is impossible to say how far this 

 theory has been borne out in practice. I may say, however, 

 that Dr. Juan d' Arguila has sent out men to go over his 

 estates on the Ucayali, where Caucho was exhausted in 1888, 

 and that he hopes to cut the next year. I have myself seen 

 on the Marafion [upper Amazon] young Caucho trees, six or 

 seven years old, growing up around the felled trunk of the 

 parent tree, so that I think it very probable that ere long 

 the Colombian and Peruvian forests will regain their old 

 status. 



As to the yield of the Caucho tree: In my two years' ex- 

 perience in Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil, cutting Caucho with 

 my own hands, I have frequently encountered trees giving 18 

 to 26 kilograms [= 39.6 to 57.2 pounds] of slab Caucho on 

 the spot, but of course you must remember that Caucho 

 loses 70 to 80 per cent, of its weight in the voyage to Para 

 or Manaos. 



From what I have read in the The India Rubber World, 

 it appears that in Mexico the Castilloa elastica trees are tapped, 

 as if they were Heveas. I have asked several Peruvians as to 

 this method of extracting latex, and they all consider it waste- 

 ful— 



1. Because by this method only from 2 to 7 kilograms of 

 slab Caucho can be obtained on the spot. 



2. Because after five or six tappings the tree dies anyhow. 



3. Because by felling the tree, a yield is obtained of from 12 

 (at the least) to 18 or even 30 kilograms of slab Caucho. That 

 is, a tree yielding 2 kilos per year for five years, gives a total of 

 only 10 kilos, whereas by felling it, 12 kilograms may be ob- 

 tained at one operation. 



4. When a tree is tapped to death, the saplings die off, and 

 so do not replace it. 



Yet on the Putumayo, in the newly opened Caucho district 

 in Colombia, the Caucho trees are invariably tapped. 



There are two trees yielding the product known as Caucho, 

 which the Peruvians style caucho bianco and caucho roja, or 

 white and red caucho, according to the color of the bark. The 

 white variety is the one I have referred to throughout. The 

 so called " red caucho " gives a very poor yield, hardly 5 kilo- 

 grams, and it is rarely cut. I have cut only one myself, which, 

 after eight hours of jolly hard work, gave the enormous amount 

 of 4>^ kilograms of slab Caucho and about y^ kilogram of 

 ball. Yet it was a regular forest giant, ()%. feet in diameter. 

 The picture in The India Rubber World of October i, 1901, 

 [page 9] seems to be of a very small Caucho tree. I should 

 reckon its age at eighteen to twenty years. Here on the Ama- 

 zon the Caucho is one of the biggest trees, hardly ever measur- 

 ing less than 6 feet in diameter, and I have heard of them reach- 

 ing 13 feet. The biggest I ever cut had a diameter of 10 feet ; 



♦Rubber in Peru, where Spanish is spoken, is called " Caucho "—which is 

 Spanish for Caoutchouc. The Peruvian rubber is, for the most part, different from 

 Para rubber, and in order to preserve the distinction, the Spanish term Caucho is 

 applied to it in most markets. — The Editor. 



it gave 28 kilograms [ = 61.6 pounds]. Of course the diameter 

 of the tree is much increased by \\\&sapucemas,^% we call them 

 — a species of flying buttress running up some four feet from 

 the ground. 



The process employed for obtaining the latex is as follows: 



1. Gash the branches with a machete. 



2. Gash the sapHcemas and leave the tree three days. 



3. Fell the tree. 



4. Gash the trunk, 



5. Collect the latex. 



The latex from the gashes made before felling the tree gives 

 the "ball" and "scrap" Caucho; that from the trunk the 

 "slab." The usual proportion of ball and scrap to slab is 1 to 

 6. A tree giving 24 kilograms of slab Caucho, therefore, should 

 yield 4 kilograms of ball, which is marketed here as "Caucho 

 sernamby," the larger product being known simply as " Cau- 

 cho." The coagulation is effected with soapsuds, though oc- 

 casionally certain plants and roots are used instead. 



I cannot for the life of me make out why people should plant 

 Castilloa elastica instead of the Hevea. I am assuming, of 

 course, that the Castilloa of Mexico and Central America is the 

 same as our Caucho. I tried my hand last year at planting 

 rubber in the suburbs of Manaos. I planted 100 saplings [cut- 

 tings?] each of Castilloa and Hevea, and 50 seeds of each. 

 None of the Castilloa seedlings lived, and 30 of the saplings 

 died. 0{\.\i^ Heveas, 14 saplings and 42 seedlings died. The 

 remainder are all thriving. They were planted in clayey soil, 

 on an incline, with northwestern exposure, and in the shade of 

 banana trees. In the state of Giao Para there are some planta- 

 tions of Hevea, but none, I believe, have yet been tapped. 

 Many rubber men in this region are planting a few saplings 

 [cuttings.'] along their estradas — say 20 or 30 each per year — by 

 way of experiment. 



As to the yield of Hevea : On looking over my notes I find 

 that the average yield per tree of sixteen estradas (in widely 

 scattered districts) in which I have worked, was i>2 ounce per 

 day, exclusive of the scrap collected from the trunks at the end 

 of the week — say % ounce per tree. 



Mandos, Brazil, April 12, 1902. 



COMMENT BY THE EDITOR. 

 It is apparent, from the preceding article, that there are yet 

 points bearing upon some important Rubber species which are 

 not yet generally clear. For example, botanists have reached 

 the conclusion that the South American trees yielding what is 

 known commercially as " Caucho " [Spanish for Caoutchouc] 

 are identical with the tree yielding the rubber known as 

 " Centrals." This is the tree native to Mexico and Central 

 America, designated as the Castilloa elastica, and now being 

 planted extensively. But Senhor Garnier's description of the 

 Caucho tree, based upon his experience as a cauchero, will not 

 suggest to the planters in Mexico a very strong resemblance 

 to the tree with which they are concerned. The wide spread- 

 ing base of the Peruvian tree trunk, and the growth from its 

 roots of "saplings" which in time replace the felled parent 

 tree, are unusual in the Mexican species. 



But this question of identity is less important than another 

 point mentioned by Mr. Garnier — that there are different 

 Caucho trees, even in the Amazon valley, some of which do 

 not repay cutting down. In Central America, as noted in a 



