PARA RUBBER. 59 



According to Jumelle,* M. Bonnechaux has investigated many 

 of the Brazilian forests, and the information regarding the rubber 

 from Hevea species which that explorer has compiled is of interest 

 to all cultivators of Para rubber. The collection of caoutchouc 

 is mainly from species of Hevea, but certain species of Sapium are 

 credited as yielding good latex which is frequently mixed with that 

 from the Hevea trees. 



According to Bonnechaux, the Hevea trees are to be found in 

 groups of from 120 to 180 wild trees, mainly along the courses of 

 the rivers. When they are numerous the average distance between 

 two Hevea trees is about 30 steps ; when less abundant, about 50 

 steps ; and where more widely scattered the collection of caoutchouc 

 is considered to be too difficult and laborious. The trees on one 

 group were measured by Bonnechaux and varied from 0-25 to 0' 90 

 metre in diameter. (I metre-^about 39. 1 , inches). 



Collecting operations are, according to the above authority, com- 

 menced in July when the rainy season is drawing to a close and 

 when the rivers are low, and are continued until February. Tapping 

 is commenced in the morning immediately after sunrise, the men 

 making their incisions from below to a height of about six to seven 

 feet with axes ; receptacles are fixed in the bark and the latex 

 allowed to run into them, while the tapping of other trees is con- 

 tinued. In other parts of Brazil the latex is collected by punct- 

 uring the bark and conducting the latex by means of the leaf stalks 

 of Mauritia flexuosa, Mart., to the apex of a V, where a receptacle 

 is placed. The receptacles have a capacity of 10 to 20 centilitres, 

 three or four being used for trees having a diameter of 50 cm., 

 (19 1 inches). All the trees in one group are tapped on the same day, 

 the men spending very little time in making the incisions and fixing 

 the receptacles. The latex is finally poured and stored in a vessel 

 made to hold from 4 to 8 litres. The men on the following day 

 make new incisions below the old ones and continue the operation 

 for as long as convenient. 



Method in the Gold Coast. 



In the Cold Coast a system rather similar to the full herring- 

 bone is often used, a series of small transverse channels opening 

 into a perpendicular one at the base of which the latex is collected. 

 Modern Methods of Tapping. 



At the present time the various methods of tapping Para rubber 

 trees may be roughly described as {a) single oblique lines ; (b) 

 V-shaped incisions ; (c) single cuts with a vertical channel join- 

 ing them : when the cuts are on one side only of the vertical line, 

 the system is often termed the half-herring-bone, and when on both 

 sides the full herring-bone system ; (d) spiral curves. There are 

 various modifications, but they are not of sufficient importance to 

 warrant a detailed separate description. 



* Lcs Plantos Caoutchouc et Gutta, by Henri Jumelle, Puris, 1903. 



