67 



Man 



of a knife, which is curved or rounJed « ie a^ Tnd '.'Si 

 metal cup is placed at the end of the cut to collect the latex The 

 latex begins to coagulate as soon as collected, and it is then pressed 

 by hand into balls, which are afterwards usually compressed in 

 cylinders and then well dried. With careful methods a tree ma - 

 be tapped from three to ten times. The rubber obtained annuTlh- 



reckoned at 400 to 500 tonnes.* In this calculation plantations do 



not yet come into consideration, since the discovery of this tree 

 was on lv marfA ir> iqai ™,i +u ' * «__, , «»«j' »*■ mis tree 



becoming ready for tapping: ™F™« are only just 



The method of obtaining the rubber from the two other species 



la nearly identical, but differs from that described for M. dicSna 



owing to their short stems and the somewhat harder nature ofihe 



?V,' ' ] ab ° Ve th f, root has P roved to be most effective, 



and n\Vd w^ n S° Se * ^ h ° le V Ug 0n one side of the Btem 



?1 A i la) ; \ 8cr » tches «* then made just above the neck 



of the root and the latex flows into the little pit where it coagulates 



and is collected one or two days later. «*kui«"»h 



from 



tapping. 



M heptaphylla yields about 500 tonnes of rubber per year 



7™' M.pianhyensis the output of rubber is estimated at at 

 least 600 tonnes in the year. 



Plantations. 



M. 



rather young and only the oldest are ready for tapping • but 



from 



- -x- > •• — xv,^ *iii»u ^^n jviiuwn lunger, a 



satisfactory amount of rubber is now being brought on to the 

 »»"*-* In the plantations, which are laid out in a quite primitive 



mai 



manner, the seeds are planted in rows two metres apart, making 

 2,500 trees to the hectare (2-47 acres). Other plants may be grown 

 between the rows during the first year. With regard to tapping, 

 M. ptauhymm* is ready in the third year and the other two 

 species may be tapped in their fourth vear of growth. The vield 



reckoned at from 100-200 grammes with present methods, and 

 this is equivalent to 200-300 kilogs. per hectare. 



500 



M. 



roughly to about 1 tonne per hectare. 



Value of the Rubber— The market value of the three kinds of 

 rubber, according to the rate of October 28th last, was for 



M. 



- . • 



t3s.-6s. 6<7. per kilo. 

 7s. 6d. per kilo. 

 8s.-8s. 6d. per kilo. 



Para rubber being quoted at 9s. per kilo. 



The cultivation of Ceara rubber (M. Glaziovit), which has been 

 pursued with more or less profit in many cases, has had to be 



* l tonne (1,000 kilog.) - -934 of a ton. 



31012 



B 2 



