" India-Rubber Collection at Para." 91 



furnace a hollow is dug in the ground and a small smokv 

 fire is made, with troolie seeds, in it, and then the iron 

 cone, or furnace, is placed over the fire so as to confine 

 the smoke to one narrow jet issuing at the top. The 

 " Syringueiro" now dips a stick, prepared for the 

 purpose and made smooth, into the milky substance he 

 has colle6led, draws it out and keeps twirling it over 

 the smoke until the coating taken up by the stick gets 

 hard or coagulated, and this operation is repeated 

 over and over again until a ball of rubber, about 12 

 inches diameter is formed. The stick is then drawn 

 out of the ball and a fresh one is commenced and 

 finished in the same way until all the fluid colle6led 

 is coagulated, and this ends the first day's work. The 

 second day's work of bleeding is resumed and the same 

 trees are again bled, but the incisions are now made about 

 7 inches below those of the previous day, also on a cir- 

 cumferential line and 7 inches apart ; and this is continued 

 every day until the foot of the tree is almost reached and 

 then the tree is allowed to rest for some time that the 

 incisions may close and the milk ascend. 



With due care and bleeding at the proper time the 

 rubber tree scarcely suffers any injury. The tool used 

 for bleeding is of the shape of an axe, and only measures 

 2^ inches in length by i j inches in breadth at the cutting 

 edge ; it weighs about ^ lb. Under cultivation the rubber 

 trees are planted from ten to twelve feet apart, and bled 

 at from seven to eight years old. 



In conclusion, I see no difficulty in cultivating the 

 rubber tree in this Colony if proper inducements be 

 offered by the Government, as is done in Para, where a 

 premium of ten thousand milreis is offered to every 



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