from the best material and certainly would yield the best product, 
suffers. Nevertheless the rubber balls from Acre, prepared in 
the primitive manner, furnish a good and much sought for rubber. 
The tapping of the trees also is often effected with less care, 
small steel axes being used that make wounds that are too deep 
and as a result, the seringaes in the Acre are exhausted more 
quickly than those in the inundated district. 
From the baracaos the stations on the banks of the river, 
small mule trains proceed to the interior to bring in the rubber 
balls, which are laid in rows, usually in the open air, so that they 
will be thoroughly dried before loading them on the steamer. By. 
the same mules, food and supplies are sent to the seringueiros 
in the forest. When the rubber gathering ceases in December 
or January, the seringueiro has other important work to do. 
Roads must be opened and repaired, clearings made in the forest, 
huts erected, wood cut and finally the paths set in order for the 
approaching harvest. During the rainy season, the steamer brings 
new supplies and food, which the seringueiro must buy at the 
Baracao. 
Concerning the duties the seringueiro has to perform, there 
are special regulations, which prevail in most seringae and of 
which written or printed copies are often furnished. 
To each seringueiro is allotted two or three estradas, each 
with 120 to 200 trees. For this he pays 15 per cent of his gather- 
ing of fine rubber to the owner of the forest and an additional 
10 per cent if he uses the mules for transportation. The remain- 
ing rubber belongs to the seringueiro in so far as he does not 
have to pay it for goods purchased. As a rule, the owner pur- 
chases a portion of the product on the spot at a price that is, of 
course, somewhat lower than is paid in Mandaos, the remaining 
portion is shipped, for account of the seringueiro, to Para and 
Manaos, and he receives the full market price for it, of course, 
after deducting freight and duties. The balance is placed to the 
credit of the seringueiro and paid to the firm representing the 
owner in Manaos or Para. Certain items, for instance, the price 
of Sernamby, consisting of residual scraps of rubber, the serin- 
gueiro also receives in Acre. In some cases payments are made 
in rubber products, a form of payment quite common in other 
transactions. 
On the upper Acre, a seringueiro will usually collect in a 
day as much milk as will yield from 6 to 15 kilos of fine rubber. 
Two liters of this milk yield a kilo of dry rubber, whereas with 
Manihot Glaziovi, 8 liters are required for this. Exceptional 
cases occur where the seringueiro furnishes milk for 20 to 25 
kilos of fine rubber in one day. Daily collections of more than 
40 liters, however, a single worker can hardly control and he 
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