70 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



and also practised with quite good effects on several 

 properties in the Malang district of Java. 



There is no reason why the Northway system, in con- 

 junction with the principle of the exterior latex channel, 

 both modified to fit the varying local conditions, should 

 not be applied with marked success throughout the 

 rubber districts of the Amazon Valley. In any event 

 the experiment is worth a trial, for it offers a better 

 prospect of a solution of the present difficulties than 

 any practical suggestion hitherto put forward to 

 counteract the crisis precipitated by the rapid fall in 

 the value of the raw material. The exterior latex 

 troughs can be affixed to the trees at a trifling cost of 

 money and labour if made of tin or zinc and supplied 

 in quantities sufficient to meet the requirements of the 

 industry ; no excision of bark is necessary, as was the 

 practice in Ceylon, for the exterior channel takes the 

 place of the one formerly cut in the stem of the tree ; 

 the injury to the bark surface consequent upon the long 

 previous use of the machadinho will not prevent the free 

 application of the pricker ; the collector will be able to 

 tap more trees per day under this system than he does 

 at present with an axe ; a minimum of damage will be 

 done in the future to trees handled in this way ; and, 

 finally, the yield per tree will be increased by a very 

 appreciable amount, if the results obtained in Ceylon 

 and Java are any criterion for drawing a rational 

 deduction in regard to the application of this method 

 to both forest-grown and planted trees in the Amazon 

 Valley. The experiment of testing this system at 

 different points in the rubber districts can be effected 

 without any heavy expenditure, for all that is necessary 



