114 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1, 1911. 



natives is based on this peculiar physical construction of the 

 root. They pull out the roots, cut them into convenient lengths 

 of perhaps si.x feet, and tie them into bundles, which they carry 

 to the village, where they cut open the bundles in order to spread 

 the roots out on the ground to be dried by the rays of the sun. 

 When thoroughly dry they place the roots in a pool of water and 

 let them soak for several days for the purpose of softening the 



African J•A(TllK^■ fok hxiK\i.TiNG (_ika!>^ Ri uhkk. 



bark and loosening it from the woody part. Then they take them 

 to a near-by log or stump of a tree, which serves as an anvil, and 

 by means of a mallet or short club, the bark is separated. The 

 bark is again spread out on the ground to dry. On the thorough- 

 ness of this drying depends the future cleanliness of the rubber. 

 Taking a handful of dry bark the native holds it on the anvil, 

 where he again pounds or hammers it with the dub or mallet, 

 gradually pulverizing the bark. During this process of pulveriza- 

 tion the dust-like bark falls off the anvil, while the particles of 

 rubber unite into a mass. Should the bark be at all damp or wet 

 ^hen the small particles of bark, instead of being blown away by 

 the wind or falling off the anvil, will cling to the rubber, making 

 the separation exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. While 

 this process appears very primitive, it will give excellent results 

 if carried out with care and intelligence. Unfortunately, the 

 average native does not realize how much he would gain by added 

 care. At times the native tries to wash out some of the impuri- 

 ties by working the rubber in water. While this improves the 

 product, it does not overcome the difficulty sufficiently to cause its 

 universal adoption 



It was found on making a few experiments that no plant lends 

 itself so admirably to mechanical treatment as the Landolphia 

 Tholonii. In no other rubber bearing plant does the remarkable 

 characteristic of absolutely free, dry and loose rubber occur. Be- 

 cause of this peculiarly favorable condition, almost any machine 

 that will pulverize the bark will liberate or extract the rubber, 

 for, in this particular case, pulverization is extraction. With 

 very slight changes the ordinary pebble mill, a Lane or chocolate 

 mill, an ore stamp mill or any high speed pulverizer will success- 

 fully extract the rubber. The simple little contrivance constructed 

 in the field in the crudest way for this special purpose gave 

 remarkable results, for the rubber extracted thereby was very 

 clean and in splendid shape to send to market, as it contained 

 fully 75 per cent, less bark and impurities than similar rubber 

 extracted by the usual native method. The most attractive fea- 

 ture of the little machine, however, is its light weight. In this 

 respect it differs from all other pulverizers, which are universally 

 heavy and cumbersome, and therefore do not lend themselves to 

 being transported through an uncivilized country possessing no 

 transportation facilities. 



The Landolphia Tliolonii is found badly scattered. An acre 

 will seldom produce more than two hundred pounds of roots, 

 from which but ten pounds of rubber can be secured. There are 

 neither pack nor draft animals, nor do wagon roads exist. Every- 

 thing must be transported on the backs of the natives. And such 

 individual packs seldom pass forty pounds. When, therefore, it 

 is realized that the pebble mill, the unit in the Guayule mill, will 

 consume four thousand pounds of African root bark in one day, 

 that it requires one hundred natives to carry this supply ten miles, 

 that it woidd require an equal number to start for the factory 

 the next day and fully fifty hands to gather and prepare the roots 

 for the carriers, and that a day's supply would have to be taken 

 from twenty acres, then the importance of a light transportable 

 machine at once becomes evident. Moving a light machine to the 

 field is far easier than carrying the roots to a central factory, for 

 then the weight to be transported is but one-twentieth. 



The cultivation on a very large scale of Landolphia Tholonii 

 in a thoroughly accessible territory surrounding a central factory, 

 with all modern means of gathering and transporting the roots 

 would not solve the problem, because these roots require so many 

 years before they would be of sufficient size to be of value, even 

 though the yield per acre were most tremendously increased. 

 That such root plantations could never compete with the planta- 

 tations of Hcvea in the Far East goes without saying, for both 

 require the same number of years to mature. In the case of the 

 HcTCa trees, the yield would, after maturity, increase indefinitely 



DisryiBurioiM of Grass Robbe.k 



~' Landolphia T*<olonii 8^ MUr.'lLls 

 il|l[l!ll Carpodinus Chyli-orhiza O^Lkucantha 

 .. Probable. Limits of Distribution 



f. H H^MICKE. 



from year to year, while in the case of the Landolphia Tholonii 

 the entire yield would be harvested at a sacrifice of all the plants. 

 The wild plants are rapidly disappearing, so that in a few years 

 this source of rubber will become an insignificant factor in the 

 world's production. 



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