LANDOLPHIA KIBHER FORESTS 93 



mass has been reduced to pulp he puts it in 

 water, which he heats over a fire to a boil. He 

 then takes it out, squeezes it, treads on it, and 

 heats it again till he has got rid of as much 

 more bark as he can, when he tears the sheet 

 of rubber into small pieces, squeezing each piece 

 into a ball. For very clean rubber two boilings 

 are necessary, but some is not boiled at all, the 

 crude pulp after a little beating and washing 

 being at once rolled up into balls. 



The quality of the rubber so prepared varies 

 according to the amount of washing it has 

 received, the lowest quality, which is more than 

 half bark, being valued at Hamburg at 2s. a 

 kilo, and the best at 4s. 6d. a kilo (November, 

 1911), but the best has a large percentage of 

 impurities in it and would rank as a very low- 

 grade article in the European market. The 

 trade is in the hands of Indians, who buy it 

 from the natives and ship it on consignment 

 to Hamburg through European houses. They 

 make no effort to induce the native to bring in 

 cleaner stuff, and are themselves quite indifferent 

 to the argument that they incur expenses in 

 paying freight on bark which is of no value. 

 Sometimes the rubber is brought in quite wet, 

 and in this condition it is stored by the Indians 

 and shipped. By the time it arrives it is " tacky " 



