April i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



213 



Rubber Gathering in Bolivia. 



THE growing interest in the exploitation of Bolivia, and es- 

 pecially of india-rubber, which at present is one of the 

 principal export staples in that country, suggests the pres- 

 entation at this time of some views which appear on this and 

 the following page. To-day a considerable portion of the rubber 

 gathered in Bolivia finds its way tlirough a mountain pass near 

 the town of Sorata, to the Pacific port of Mollendo. The project- 



Tapping a Tree. 



fUse of the "machadine," preparatory to attacliinj; 

 a "tichuela" to catch the latex.] 



ed railway around the falls of the Madeira, in order to facilitate 

 access to the Amazon, and in which American capitalists are 

 deeply interested, may change this situation — but that is for the 

 future. The pictures shown here record existing conditions. 



Sorata, a town of about 2,000 inhabitants, is the capital of the 

 province of Larecaja, in the department of La Paz, in the west of 

 Bolivia. It is situated at the foot of one of the highest peaks of 



the Andes, not far from Lake Titicaca, from the western coast of 

 which a railway runs to Mollendo, on the Pacific coast. Sorata 

 is on the line of the commercial route to northwestern Bolivia, 

 and is a progressive and enterprising town in which living ex- 

 penses are relatively cheap. It is a center for the contracting of 

 laborers for the gathering of rubber, bark, coffee, etc., and for the 

 distribution of provisions and merchandise to the inhabitants of 



the neighboring valleys. The 

 town is distant from four to 

 ten days, by mule or pack an- 

 imal, from the rubber districts 

 which, in portions of Larecaja 

 province, are among the richest, 

 in licvea rubber, in the world. 

 A report on this region in 

 the Monthly Bulletin of the In- 

 ternational Bureau of the 

 -American Republic (Washing- 

 ton, February, 1908) says : 

 "The number of rubber trees 

 varies greatly in the different 

 rubber producing centers. In 

 some regions as many as 100 

 trees are found to the hectare 

 [;=2.47i acres), while in other 

 places it is difficult to en- 

 counter a dozen rubber trees 

 to the hectare. The largest 

 number of the Hevea 

 Brasiliensis grows on the slopes 

 of the mountain ranges that 

 receive the direct rays of the 

 sun." The report indicates 

 that various other rubber spe- 

 cies exist in this region, but 

 that only the Hez'ea has been 

 exploited, owing to the others being less valuable. 



TAPPING FOREST EUBBER IN BOLIVIA. 



Mr. F. J. DuNLEAVY contributes to the Tropical Agriculturist 

 a report of some observations made by him on the yield of 

 Hevca rubber trees on the property of the Boston and Bolivia 

 Rubber Co. He started out with an expert tapper at s a. m., and 

 their work was done at 10 a. m. Meanwhile the man had tapped 

 with a machidine 345 trees, attaching to them 946 tichuclas (cups). 





?pva\ 



Curing the Rubber. 



t.At the "humedcro." Smoking the latex on a wooden 

 paddle over a palm wood fire.] 



At the Company's Storehouse. 



[Cutting the cured rubber from the wooden paddles.] 



The Tapping Tool Used in Bolivia. 



[The first view shows the full size of the "machadine." The second shows 

 an outline, with the eye for a handle 2 feet long. ] 



