20 RUBBER AND 



The trees are said to flourish best on rich alluvial 

 clay swamps by the side of rivers. Tapping is carried 

 out between June and February, and is confined to trees 

 of 10 to 15 years of age and upwards. To each 

 seringueiro or collector are assigned from 100 to 150 

 trees, which are connected by a winding path, or 

 estrade, cut through the undergrowth. Tapping is per- 

 formed with a hatchet, shaped like a small poleaxe, 

 and the latex is collected in small cups of tinplate, 

 having a sharp edge which can be inserted into the bark. 

 Some days before the tapping proper is begun, the 

 trees are gashed high up with a long-handled hatchet, in 

 order " to make the latex ascend from the roots." The 

 actual tapping is done on alternate days. Beginning at 

 sunrise the seringueiro makes two rounds of his estrade, 

 the first in order to tap the trees and the second in order 

 to collect the latex. The first day's tapping consists of 

 a horizontal row of slanting incisions made with the 

 hatchet as high up as the operator can conveniently 

 reach. On subsequent days fresh rows of cuts are made 

 below the old ones, the bottom of the trunk being 

 reached on the average after about 35 tapping days. 



The next operation is smoking, which is carried out 

 as soon as the latex is brought in, before coagulation 

 and putrefaction have time to assert themselves. A 

 smoky fire of wood, mixed with the nuts of certain 

 palms, is made beneath a kind of funnel-shaped chimney. 

 The latex is rotated in the smoke on the surface of a 

 wooden instrument which may be either rod- or paddle- 



