GUTTA CULTIVATION. 53 



tlivis yielding a leaf and Lark crop, wliile the intermediate plants 

 would be coppiced from time to time and yield a leaf crop. 



The first steps to be taken in this matter are to procnre a 

 rasping or other machine suitable for grinding up the bark and 

 leaves, and an extracting apparatus to separate the gutta. With 

 these it should be a comparatively easy matter to decide on the 

 possibility or otherwise of extracting commercially. This jDoint 

 being settled the feasibility of the cultivation of gutta percha 

 would also be settled, for the one depends entirely on the 

 other.* 



Supposing, for the sake of argument, that it is settled in the 

 affirmative, it would still be a question whether the cultivation 

 is one in which any private persons would care to invest capital, 

 as there is always the chance tliat some substitute for gutta 

 percha might be discovered before the plantations began to 

 make any returns. On the other hand, if no rival insulator is 

 found, then by the time the crop began to come in the value of 

 the gum woidd be very much higher than is here set down. 



The other aspect of the question is that which I jioinlecl out 

 years ago, viz., the im]jrovement of the method of collection of 

 the gum from the wild trees, so that nearly the whole of the 

 gutta contents of the trees might be obtained in place of the 

 small per-centage at present exti'acted from them. This is a 

 portion of the subject which might well be taken up by private 

 individuals. The portion of the tree that contains the most 



* Monsieur Fernand Vivier informs nie that Mr. P. H. Ledelsoer, of Singapore, has 

 been experimenting on a maceration process, and has met witli very encouraging results. 

 Some samples of the gutia percha produced by the process certainly leave nothing 

 to be desired. As I understand the process it is that outlined in my ^wjier of 1883, 

 that is, the material, bark or leaves, is ground up and then agilati'd in lioiliuK water 

 until the gutta exudes and collects in flocks, which are removed and subsequently 

 cleaned by further kneeding in hot water. 



The following extract from the " Kew Bulletin " gives some additional details of the 

 process : — 



" Extraetion of Gjdta Percha from Leaves.— The following communication sup. 

 plements the information already given in the " Kew Bulletin " (1891, pp. 2ai-2;5i)j. 



" Extract from letter from Director of Gardens and Forest Department, Straits 

 Settlements, to Royal Gardens, Kew, dated Botanic Gardens, Singapoi'e, September 

 ISth, 1896 :— 



"I have just been down to inspect the little factory where Mr. Arnaud makes his 

 gutta percha. Serullas has gone back to Paris with endless patents of different kinds, 

 and Mr. Arnaud alone keeps up tlie business. Tlie leaves are imporled in sacks, dry, 

 from Borneo and Johore. Alosl of tlie trees are over cut in Singapore, and there are no 

 more leaves left, I hear. The leaves and twigs cost S t.fjO a iiikiil (1.33 lbs.) They are 

 then put, damped with hot water, inio a rolling machine, two rollers working against 

 each other, which grind them to iiowder. The powder is thrown into tanks of water 

 and shaken about. Tlie gulta floats in the form of a green mealy-looking stulT, is lifte(i 

 out by line copper gauze nets, jiut in warm water and jiri'sseil into moulds. 1 have 

 samples of the gutta as it comes out from the leaves, ami tlic pressrd out liuished article. 

 It is really a very curious little manufactory. I (lo not know liow long it will last, on 

 account of tlie difTiculty of iirocuring leaves, which must, I tliitik, sooner or later 

 stop the trade." 



