82 
slowly from the cuts for three hours, or perhaps longer. I may 
State that there is a great difference meh collectors in the 
performance of these duties. Some take care to get good clay 
prayionaly, a" incorporate it well, so un a ue small portion 
needed the cup to the trun ey also 
with aris and. intelligence, and invariably collect a good 
quantity of milk. Others, a again, do not take the trouble 
to prepare clay beforehand, but merely scrape up a handful 
when the dae it at the side ‘of a gapo, which is often of 
o 
proper method of iag The ra tat of milk that flows from 
e cut varies, but if the tree is large, and has not been much 
tapped, the majority of the cups will be more than half full, and 
occasionally a few may be filled to the brim. But if the tree is 
much gnarled from tapping, whether it grows in the rich sludge 
of the gapo or dry abis many of the cups will be found to contain 
of mil om ardly t 
way, only that the cuts or gashes beneath which the cups are 
placed are made from six to eight inches lower down the trunks 
ke his cu 
previously made. If the yield of milk from a tree is great, two 
rows of cups are put on at once, the one as high as can be reached, 
and the other at the surface of the ground, and in the course of 
working the upper row descending daily six or eight inches, 
while the lower one ascends the same distance, both rows in a few 
days come together. When the produce of milk diminishes in 
long-wrought trees, two or three cups are put on various parts of 
the tfe where the bark is thickest. Although many of the 
irees of this class are large, the quantity of milk obtained is 
surprisingly little. This state of things is not the result of over- 
and the energies of the tree are required in forming new layers 
to cover those numerous wounds. The best milk-yielding tree 
I examined had the marks of 12 rows of cups which had already 
en put on this season. The rows were only six inches apart, 
hree 
grew close to a gapo, only — porie d high-tide mark, d 
being a vigorous tree the cups were usually well filled, but "with 
two years or so of such treatment the tree would probably be 
pine im injured. It has been supposed that the quality of 
ins h 
is the case with some vegetable products, but as regards india- 
rubber there ought not, I think, to be any eese us difference. 
In the rainy season the milk probably contains a greater pro- 
portion of water, but, on the d hand, I am of opinion that 
then a larger quantity of milk flows from the tree. No doubt the 
dry season is the most suitable for caoutchouc collecting, although, 
