[ 4*9 ] 



789. A little powdered alum should be taken in a tea cup 

 full of water and mixed well. A few spoonfuls of this 

 solution should be put into each vessel containing about 3 

 bottlefuls of the milk after straining the milk from extra- 

 neous matter. The milk will coagulate immediately, 

 the rubber is then exposed to air on sticks and allowed 

 to drain for a week. After a month it is ready 

 for the market. A simpler process of extraction of rubber 

 from the bark and roots of the tree has been recently disco- 

 vered. This consists in keeping the slices of bark and roots 

 soaked in dilute sulphuric acid, first heated. The woody por- 

 tions are decomposed, when they can be washed out, leaving 

 the rubber in a pure state. 



790. The price has varied from Rs. 20 to Rs. 120 per 

 niaund within the last 20 years. A full grown rubber tree 50 

 years old, yields at the very lowest, 5 seers of rubber each 

 time, if very carefully tapped, and this quantity may be 

 expected about 16 times in 16 successive years, which is a safe 

 estimate for calculating the yield of a rubber tree. At the 

 rate of 10 trees per acre, the yield comes to 20 maunds of 

 rubber per acre in 16 years valued at Rs. 2,000. While an 

 acre of timber at Rs. 10 per tree would bring only Rs. 500 or 

 600. It is only Government or very rich landlords who can 

 afford to wait for 50 years before the return comes, but the 

 propagation of India rubber trees should be always kept in 

 view by Managers of Government and Court of Wards estates, 

 where immediate return need not be looked for. The seed- 

 lings may be grown either on mounds, or as epiphytes on 

 other trees. 



791. The fruits of a Chinese plant, Enconia illinoides, 

 yield a very high proportion of rubber. 



JJJ 



