66 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



The collector begins work in the early morning, 

 generally about an hour before daybreak. He carries a 

 lantern to enable him to make his way along the estrada 

 allotted to him, and he taps each rubber-tree with an 

 upward stroke of his machadinho, inflicting a wound in 

 the form of an inverted triangle, some 2 inches wide at 

 the base, and almost invariably penetrating to the wood. 

 The number of cuts made depends on the girth and 

 general condition of the tree, sometimes amounting to 

 as many as eight, and in other cases to only three or four. 

 At the apex of each cut a cup is pushed into the bark, 

 to receive the latex dripping from the wounded cells. 

 This process is repeated from tree to tree until the end 

 of the estrada is reached, an average distance of from 

 three to four miles, and containing from 130 to 150 trees 

 in the Madeira districts and in those of the lower rivers, 

 and as many as 200 trees in the vicinity of the Purus, 

 Jurua, and other sections of the upper waterways. As 

 a rule the collector completes the tapping before g a.m., 

 and he then retraces his steps, to gather the latex from 

 the receiving cups and bring it to the smoking-hut for 

 coagulation. He also collects any lumps of rubber 

 formed in the cups, but none of the bark scrap that is 

 such an important item in the returns of Oriental plan- 

 tations. There are two reasons for leaving this bark 

 scrap untouched. The first is that the amount is prac- 

 tically insignificant, owing to the method of tapping, 

 and the value low in comparison with other grades of 

 rubber; and, secondly, this scrap left in the wound 

 forms a protective shield for the cambium and cortex 

 against atmospheric influences, and attacks by borer or 

 other insect plagues. Indeed, it is not too much to say 



