RUBBER IN NICARAGUA 



wishes to lay her eggs in the wood. It must be elastic, because 

 the branches and stems swaying to and fro in the wind require 

 a yielding, springy substance, but resin is contained in it, so 

 that it promptly hardens and closes up the scar. The 

 traveller Belt, in his Naturalist in Nicaragua^ mentions that 

 those trees which had been entirely drained of their rubber 

 by the Indian gatherers were riddled by beetles, and in an 

 unhealthy, dying condition. 



Almost all the important rubber plants are found in wet, 

 unhealthy, tropical forests ; they are by far the most import- 

 ant jungle product in West Africa, as well as on the Congo 

 River and in the Amazcm valley. 



It is quite impossible to describe the various rubber trees, 

 and the different methods of gathering rubber, but it may be 

 interesting to quote from an account of the method of its 

 collection in Nicaragua, by Mr. Rowland W. Cater. ^ 



The best season for tapping the trees of Castilloa ehstica 

 is from August to February. It is best also to perform the 

 operation early in the morning before the daily rain, " or in 

 the evening after the rain has fallen. The milk ... is 

 white and of the consistency of cream. The tree thrives best 

 in moist but not marshy forests. 



" It seeds in the tenth year, and ought not to be tapped 

 before its eighth year, or its growth may be much retarded. 



" On reaching the group of trees, which numbered seventeen 

 of various sizes, my Carib friends first cut away the twining 

 creepers that almost hid the trunks, and then carefully re- 

 moved a couple of buruchas, natural ropes of rubber, formed 

 in the following manner : From incisions in the bark, possibly 

 caused by woodpeckers or some insect, the juice often exudes, 

 trickling down the trunk, in and out of the encircling creep- 



^ Chambers's Journal, Oct. 24th, 1896. 

 308 



