March 1, 1911 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



191 



gethcr before it has thoroughly dried out and by so doing gets 

 greater weight. Xormally, the drying continues for about a week, 

 but the product shrinks for a month or more. The average 

 gatherer brings in from 400 to SCO pounds, while experts in good 

 sections have been known to gather as much as 1,000 pounds in 

 a season. When the work is finished camp is broken, the balata 

 is taken to Paramaribo ; the men are paid whatever balance is 

 due them, and they promptly and joyously spend it all in a 

 single niglit. 



The sheet balata from Surinanie is the standard, and is worth 

 much more than blcick, which latter is never as dry, and often 



IxW.VNi M.\KINC C.\SS.\V.\ BrE/\D. 



trunks and the cracks are carefully stopped up with balata until 

 watertight. A cover is also made to keep out the rain, and to 

 prevent insects, twigs, etc., from falling in. 



The collectors after breakfast spend a short time discussing 

 the weather probabilities, and if it bids fair to be a day free 

 from rain they scatter for the parts of the forest where they 

 have located untapped trees. In addition to cutlass, calabashes 

 and collecting can, each workman constructs a rough ladder of 

 poles and bush rope. 



Tapping is begun at the foot of the tree, where great gashes 

 are cut in the tough bark, under which a calabash is placed. 

 Then on up the tree the worker goes cutting deep grooves two 

 inches wide, crisscrossing them so that the milk will flow down 

 a main channel into the calabash. Eight or ten trees is a day's 

 work for one man and from them ha should fill the 5-gaIlon tin. 

 This should give about 20 pounds of balata. The gatherer 

 starts back to camp about 3 in the afternoon, empties the 

 latex into his tank and spends the rest of the day far into the 

 night in eating, smoking and story telling of the weirdest sort. 



The gathering being done at the beginning of the rainy season, 

 as the milk flows best then, great care must be exercised to 

 avoid the frequent showers, as water injures the product and 

 often stops coagulation. The drying or coagulation is very 

 simple. The tank is set out in the sunlight for several hours 

 and a thin skin soon forms on the surface of the milk. After a 

 time when this is thick encugh it is peeled of? and hung up to 

 dry. This tilm looks like raw hide and is of a dark red color. 

 Tlie dishonest gatherer will fold the wet sides of the sheet to- 



-Market, P.\r.\.m.\ribo. 



Usu.AL Method of T.\pi'ixg B.\l.\ta Trees. 



oint.iins impurities. Sheet balata costs to collect from 40 to 45 

 cents a pound ; 20 cents of this goes to the laborer who is paid 

 only for the gum he turns in. The other costs are a small com- 

 mission to the foreman, general outfitting expenses, government 

 tax, and so on. 



Balata has been nuich slower in coming into use than has 

 almost any rubber or gutta. For a long time it was classed 

 among the intractable gums. In 1890 the world could find a 

 use for only 200 tons of it. Little by little, however, it found 

 uses chiefly as a substitute for gutta-percha, until in 1900, 400 

 tons were needed. 



[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



