336 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July i, 1904. 



YOUNG 'HEVEA" TREES. 

 [Planted among lea along a watercourse, in Kalatura ; view in 1S9S.] 



One of the most interesting features of this plantation was 

 the rubber curing house, where the milk is coagulated and the 

 rubber prepared for market. This is a one story brick building, 

 30 X 80 feet, smelling for all the world like a dairy as one steps 

 within its doors. At one end of the room is a long table upon 

 which are hundreds of enamelled iron pans, capable of holding 

 about a quart each. Into these pans the milk is poured 

 through a cheese cloth strainer, after having been previously 

 strained in the field. .To it is often added a very little acetic 

 acid — a. few drops only. This is allowed to stand over night, 

 and in the morning there is to be found in each pan a pure 

 white pancake of rubber, soft, spongy, and full of water. Each 

 cake is then rolled on a zinc covered table with a hand roller 

 and much of the water thus expressed. The name of the estate 

 is then stamped upon it with either a wooden or metal die, 

 when it is ready for the heater room. The heaters used are 

 simply charcoal ovens, the rubber being spread on wire screens 

 above the fire, and left for three or four hours. By this time 

 the pancakes have lost about 50 per cent, in weight and are be- 

 ginning to assume a decidedly darker hue. Cakes in the con- 

 dition described, if in South America would be immediately 

 marketed, but not in Ceylon. From the heaters they go to 

 drying racks, where they are air dried for a month to six 

 weeks, depending somewhat upon the weather, and are shipped 

 only after careful examination as to quality and dryness. The 

 care which the planters are expending upon the preparation of 

 the rubber is the best sort of guarantee that the quality will be 

 sustained, and that the day will come when the name of a 

 plantation on a cake of rubber will tell its value almost to a 

 penny. To follow the rubber a little further it is, when per- 

 fectly satisfactory to the planter, packed in chests, the counter- 

 part of the regulation tea chest, made of " momi " wood that 

 comes in shooks from Japan, each package containing about 

 200 pounds. 



There is also a coarse rubber that is secured by picking the 

 scrap from tapped trees. It is a very excellent rubber, and 

 while I was there it found a market at 3.1. 5,^/., while the fine 

 was bringing 4.5. 9'/id. There are those who claim that it is 

 unwise to pick the film of rubber out of the tapping wounds in 

 the tree, as there is danger that insects or disease enter there. 

 Such a theory is plausible, but so far I have not heard of ill 

 resulting from such removal of the air dried scrap. 



This coarse rubber, by the way, was not absolutely clean ; 

 that is, it contained bits of bark, and vegetable matter often- 



FIFTEEN YEAR OLD HEVEA" TREES. 



[Planted among tea on an estate in Kalatura ; view in 1898 ; " herring-bone " 

 tapping is no longer practiced.] 



times. As labor is so cheap, and there is plenty of water, it 

 could be very easily washed. For this purpose the ordinary cor- 

 rugated roll washer that is used in the rubber factories has been 

 suggested, but it hardly fits the case, as the scraps are so very 

 small. A more practical plan would be to run them through a 

 winnowing machine such as is used to blow the dirt out of 

 peas and beans and let the air blast take out as much bark as 

 possible. Then if necessary use a washer of the paper engine 

 type to wash and beat the rest out. Of course, for quick dry- 

 ing the gum should then be sheeted, and either plain or cor- 

 rugated rolls would accomplish that, and it could hang until 

 dry. There is so little of the scrap, however, that the simple 

 winnowing machine is probably all that would be necessary 

 or profitable. 



The time will come, however, when the coagulating and 

 drying will have to be done on a different plan. The present 

 method takes up too much room and is too slow. It would be 

 perfectly easy to have coagulating pans that would deliver 

 strips of rubber 10 feet long, a foot wide, and a quarter of 

 an inch thick. These strips could then be run through rolls 

 that would squeeze the excess water out, and at the same 

 time imprint the plantation name every few inches. Then the 

 strips could be hung up to dry and any degree of artificial 

 heat applied that was thought best. 



There have been suggested also a variety of quick coagulat- 

 ing devices, such as endless belts that take a film of milk into 

 a drying chamber and deliver it to the other side coagulated 

 and dried. Some such plan may prevail, but as yet the plant- 

 ers are not ready for it. 



After many experiments the manager at Culloden has satis- 

 fied himself that only the very early morning or the late after- 

 noon are the proper times to tap, as in the middle of the day 

 the flow of latex is almost nothing. The trees are therefore 

 tapped from 4 until 7 A. M., and after 3 30 p M. and as long 

 as it is light. Indeed, the collection of the latex is often 

 done by torchlight. As an instance of Mr. Harrison's alertness 

 in getting all he can out of the trees with safety, he told me of 

 a series of experiments that he was about to institute for all 

 night tapping. It seems he learned that certain sugar estates 

 did all their cutting of the cane by electric light, and that the 

 amount of saccharine matter secured was much larger than in 

 the day time, and as the habit of the Hevea tree pointed toward 

 more latex at night he felt that a similar experiment would be 

 justified. 



