systems employed; the cost price of rubber from the native mani- 
coba is higher, due to the dearness of labor and of freights. 
There is so’ far no process which may be called the best for 
extracting rubber from the mangabeira; the process in use varies 
with the region, all of them, however, leading to the complete 
extinction of the plant. 
Under the pretext of the cupim destroying the plant, attack- 
ing the incisions that have been made, the latex is usually 
extracted at a small height from the ground. In the “sertdes” 
or wild woodlands of Bahia, Pernambuco and Parahyba, the 
extraction is done by making a spiral cutting from the thickest 
branches to the ground, where the cavity is made for receiving 
the latex. 
Nevertheless, the incisions with the cup attached is now 
being employed, in the same manner as is customary with the 
seringueira; for that purpose, the exploiters make horizontal 
incisions or in shape of a V, with a small instrument called an 
alegre, penetrating the entire coating of the bark, in the full 
length of the trunk, from the thickest branches down to the 
base, about 45 centimetres distance one from another. 
The latex is thickened, sometimes simply with water in the 
proportion of 3 to 1, and at other times with chlorate of sodium 
alone, or with a mixture of alum, as is customary in Bahia and 
in S. Paulo, or now again by the action of alum-stone, double 
sulphate of aluminium and of potassium as is done in Per- 
nambuco, Parahyba, and Rio Grande do Norte. All those pro- 
cesses present serious inconveniences, such as the entry of water 
augmenting the weight, the baneful effects and dampness arising 
from the use of a large proportion of salt, or the loss of elasticity 
due to the last mentioned process, which turns the rubber cracky 
and resinous. The smoking process seems in every way to 
be advisable whenever the richness of the milky-latex in rub- 
ber is perfectly comparable to that of the hevea. 
Whilst it is affirmed that the production per tree is from 3 
to 5 kilogrammes it is more prudent to calculate the average 
capacity: of each tree as at 1 kilogramme. 
24 
