88 THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 



Mr. da Costa states that after the first month he 

 obtains only 25 per cent, dry rubber from the gouge 

 tapping, against 40 per cent, from machadinho work. 

 Therefore- 

 Dry rubber from machadinho, 40 per cent, of $7, 6*8, 



plus 10 per cent, scrap = 7*48. 



Dry rubber from gouge, 25 per cent, of 30, 7*5, plus 

 30 per cent, scrap = 975. 



No. 12 estrada mentioned above was tapped on 

 sixteen days in July with the herring-bone system, 

 and averaged 32^ c.c. per tree per day. 



No. 4 estrada was tapped altogether only for twenty 

 days with the gouge, and this may account for the 

 higher yield in comparison with the others. 



A fairly accurate idea of the uncertain position of 

 the rubber collectors in the central section of the 

 Amazon Valley may be gathered from the following 

 figures, extracted from the books kept at the Sevastopol 

 estate, on the Lower Purus: In 1912 the total pro- 

 duction of a division comprising twenty-two estradas 

 of 120 trees each was 3,406 kilogrammes, consisting 

 of 2,887 kilogrammes of fine rubber and 519 kilo- 

 grammes of lump and scrap (sernamby) ; this equals 

 154*9 kilogrammes for each estrada, or 1,290 grammes 

 per tree, equivalent to 2*84 pounds. The trees were 

 tapped on alternate days with the machadinho, and 

 eleven men were employed throughout the season at 

 this work; therefore the average amount of rubber 

 delivered by each man was 262*45 kilogrammes of fine 

 rubber and 47*18 kilogrammes of scrap, equal to 577*45 

 pounds and 93*81 pounds of fine rubber and scrap 

 respectively. The collector is entitled to one-half of 



