116 A PLANTATION IN A TROPICAL FOREST 
downward, meet each other, forming a broad letter V. A 
number of these incisions are made parallel, say eighteen 
inches apart, all the way up the trunk. When the juice 
runs out it follows down the incision and runs dcwn the 
trunk until it is caught in a can at the base. The juice or 
latex is a milky looking sticky fluid, in which the rubber is 
suspended in globules. This is coagulated by juice of the 
Ipomea-Bomanox or Moon-Flower, which is put into it. 
The rubber is collected much as butter is from buttermilk, 
in a large sticky pastey mass, about the color of putty. 
This is passed through rollers (an ordinary washerwoman’s 
wringer will do), and the liquid is squeezed out, the rubber 
being drawn out to a long flat slab. Then an almost equal 
quantity of rubber is gotten from the incisions on the trees, 
for a certain amount of latex adheres and coagulates. Itis 
calculated that the rubber trees will be self-supporting in 
eight years, and yield a profit in twelve years, but the in- 
dustry is so young yet that one cannot be sure of what it 
will do. ‘The rubber tree that I refer to is the Castaloa- 
elastica, the Para rubber comes from the Hevea-Braziliensis. 
CACAO. 
Cacao is a small tree that grows in the shade of larger 
trees. The pods, something like huge red or yellow cu- 
cumbers, hang on the main trunk and branches instead of 
on the twigs. Inside of the pods the seeds, like large 
brown beans, are attached to a central placenta, and are 
surrounded by a white pulp of a slightly sub-acid pleasant 
flavor. The pod is cut open, the seeds and pulp removed 
and spread out on screens. In about a day the pulp fer- 
ments and can be washed off. The seeds are then spread 
out to dry where the inevitable dog can sleep on them. 
After being roasted and ground up with sugar, they consti- 
tute the chocolate of commerce. If the oil is pressed out 
of them they form cocoa. 
I have received the following figures in reference to 
rubber and cacao growing : 
