MANIHOT GLAZIOVII 8 1 



that absolutely forbids any possibility of damaging 

 the cambium. The tree should be stripped from the 

 bottom upwards, and one foot at a time. Such a 

 stripping will permit of six tappings carried over a 

 period of fourteen days. Thus the tapping period 

 for the first part of the season may be said to last 

 from fifty to sixty days. The second period occurs 

 after the fall of the flower, and lasts about fifty days. 

 Not more than forty punctures should be made at 

 any one time, and where the latex is apt to flow very 

 freely the exposed bark should be lightly dressed 

 with a weak solution of acetic acid to promote in- 

 stantaneous coagulation. Otherwise the fluid will 

 run away over the unstripped bole of the tree, either 

 to sheer waste or to become dirty and unsaleable 

 scrap. 



In many cases alienated Manihots assimilate 

 habits of marked eccentricity, due doubtless to local 

 climatic conditions and environment against which it 

 is powerless to struggle in a proud attempt to assert 

 its own inherited characteristics. This is very 

 marked in regard to the behaviour of the latex, which 

 is generally thick and sluggish of movement, and 

 therefore extremely difficult to manipulate except in 

 the form of " scrap " or naturally coagulated 

 " ball " rubber. In Ceylon, however, and also to 

 a very large extent in India, Hawaii, and the Philip- 

 pines, the Ceara tree yields a latex as fluid and as 

 ready as that of Hevea, with the result that a very 

 fine, translucent, elastic, resilient, amber-coloured 

 " biscuit" is being produced. 



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