The next year the angles cross each other 

 giving the tree a peculiar criss-cross appearance. 



Once the milk is flowing freely, the tapper 

 leaves the tree and goes to another, repeating 

 the process already described. 



By the above method a dozen trees are con- 

 sidered an average day's work. 



When the milk ceases to flow the tapper 

 returns and carefully picks up the leaf in the 

 hole and pours its contents into a large gourd. 

 This is naturally a crude and wasteful process. 



NEW METHOD OF TAPPING. 



The modern method of tapping, as devel- 

 oped and employed on the Zacualpa Proper- 

 ties, is as follows: The hulero, or rubber- 

 gatherer, is supplied with a Tool invented and 

 perfected on La Zacualpa Plantation, consist- 

 ing of a stout handle, twenty inches long, at 

 one end of which a U-shaped sheet of steel is 

 fastened; just forward of this U, the curved 

 portion of which is sharpened to a keen edge, 

 a metal finger is depressed more or less, as de- 

 desired, by an adjustable screw which runs 

 through the handle ; and the set, or adjustment, 

 of this finger, which slides over the surface of 

 the bark as the Tool is drawn across the tree, 

 determines the depth of the cut made by the 

 U-shaped knife which follows immediately be- 

 hind the metal finger. 



