178 THE RUBBER TREE BOOK 



bending or doubling up. It has sometimes been the case that 

 a consignment of spouts has proved useless, as the spouts were 

 too thin, and the metal of which they were composed too soft, 

 to stand pressure into the bark of the tree without doubling up. 

 It is essential that all the spouts on the trees on the estate 

 should be kept clean. Nothing is more common on going over 

 an estate than to see dirty spouts everywhere. 



Buckets. The buckets into which the contents of the latex 

 cups are emptied should preferably have covers, with a flap 

 which easily lifts up and down, so that, while there is ready 

 access to the inside of the bucket, the sunlight is excluded. 

 Needless to say, the buckets should be carefully scoured out 

 every day in the factory. It is of little consequence whether 

 the buckets are made of zinc or enamelled iron, provided that 

 they are always kept clean, never allowed to become rusty, and 

 are not too heavy for the coolies to carry easily when they are 

 filled with latex. Sometimes very heavy receptacles, similar 

 to the large dairy-cans in which milk is dispatched from the 

 country to big cities, have been sent out to estates. These 

 have proved much too heavy, when filled with latex, for coolies 

 to transport with convenience. Covered buckets are better. 



Latex Carriers. On fairly extensive estates with many 

 rubber trees in bearing, carrier carts, mounted on wheels, are 

 a great convenience for the conveyance of latex to the factory. 

 Where latex is coagulated at outlying sheds these carrier carts 

 are useful for transporting the coagulated rubber to the factory 

 without exposing it to the sunlight. These carriers can either 

 be pushed by hand or be obtained in larger sizes suitable for 

 ox-haulage. 



Light Railways. In cases of very large estates, or where 

 two or more estates belonging to the same company adjoin 

 each other, light railways for the transport of latex, goods and 

 materials are of the utmost use. What is known as the Decau- 

 ville system is the most easily laid down, and, generally, the 

 least expensive. The railway simply consists of two rails 

 screwed down to light iron sleepers. All that has to be done 

 is to deposit the sleepers on the ground, at distances of about a 

 couple of yards from each other, and screw down the rails to 

 adjustable brackets with iron bolts. These railways are ex- 

 tremely common in Sumatra, especially on tobacco estates, 



