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is flowing, he dips a small roll of fresh leaves or a 

 brush into the water and squeezes a few drops at the 

 top of the cut, so as to rinse it, in order to assist 

 the flow of the latex. Next he is to see that the 

 latex flows properly along the cuts and down the 

 vertical channel and that it is not impeded by rough 

 patches of bark which might give a wrong direction 

 to the flow. The scrapings of bark which have fallen 

 on the ground are to be carefully collected and put 

 in the basket. They will be subsequently dealt with in 

 the factory. 



When all his trees have been tapped, the labourer 

 will collect the latex from the cups in a pail. On large 

 plantations, these pails are again emptied into a vat 

 on wheels which is sent down to the latex house. 



Part of the latex in the cups will already have coagu- 

 lated. This is called Lump Rubber. It is taken in to 

 the latex house together with the rest. In order to 

 prevent premature coagulation, the latex cups are some- 

 times covered with a screen leaf. 



o 



After the cups have been emptied, they should be 

 cleaned, and hung up to dry, generally on a stick which 

 is put in the ground by the side of the tree. In one 

 case I noticed that they were hung up on nails driven 

 into the trees, which were apparently none the worse 

 for the treatment. 



2. If the scrap rubber is not gathered by the tapper, 

 a separate gang of workmen should go round in the 

 afternoon after the tapping has been done for the day 

 (or on the afternoon of the following day when alternate 

 days' tapping is practised) to collect it from the trees. 



