i8 7 



more perpendicular the cut the less latex flowed, and per contra 

 the more horizontal the cut the greater the flow. We therefore 

 abandoned the original method and simply made a broad V, shaped 

 incision fastening a small \ lb. tobacco tin at the apex of each .V : 

 In all some fifty-rive trees were tapped, and nearly 150 tins were 

 used, averaging 3 tins per tree. Many of the last attached tins, 

 however, had very little or no latex at all in them. We begun to 

 tap at 8.30 A. M. with six Chinamen, and at 11.30 began collecting 

 the tins, beginning of course with those first attached, and it was 

 noticeable that the early tins had the greatest quantity of latex, 

 and the trees cut after n A.M. scarcely flowed at all. It is therefore 

 suggested that daylight is the best time to commence tapping 

 keeping on till, say, 9 a. m. In all we collected three and a-half 

 imperial pints of pure latex, which we brought to Malacca, where 

 Mr. Tan Chay Yan coagulated it by boiling, ordinary earthenware 

 chatties were used, over a wood fire, and the diluted latex was 

 constantly stirred whilst boiling. After about an hour's boiling, 

 the rubber becomes coagulated into a mass, and is taken out and 

 thrown into cold water, after which it is pressed to get rid off as 

 much water as possible. Three separate boilings gave the fol- 

 lowing results: — the \ \ imperial pint taken from the centrifugal 

 machine gave 14 ozs. of dry rubber; a second pint boiled sepa- 

 rately gave 7! ozs. and the third pint yielded iof ozs. The water 

 was quite turbid indeed milky when the rubber was taken out after 

 a little more than an hours boiling, shewing that all the rubber had 

 not been taken indeed that was so for I was informed that boiling 

 the water 2\ longer gave an additional 2\ ozs. of rubber. 

 So that we arrive at the following results : — 









09 













Name oftre 



Age of tree 



No. of trees 

 tapped. 



Average Nc 

 of incissioi 

 per tree. 



Quantity of 

 latex ob- 

 tained. 



Duration of 

 latex flow 



Length of 

 | boiling. 



Amount of 

 dry Rub- 

 ber. 



Add Scrap Rubber subse- 

 quently taken from trees, 



Rambong Ficus 

 Elastica. 



c/5 

 li 



OJ 



5K 



njei 





oh 



c/i 



c 



'a, 



Oh 



a 



1.3 hours. 



1,2 hours. 



C/j 

 N 

 O 



O 



Gfl 



8^=total 3 lbs. 2^ ozs. 



m 



















Now as regards the number of trees tapped our object was not 

 to see how much rubber we could get from one tree but rather to 

 see how much marketable rubber could be got from a known quantity 

 of milk in a given time. As regards the capacity of each tree yielding 

 latex that must still be a matter for experiment, I feel convinced 

 however, that the same quantity of rubber could be taken daily from 

 the same trees for at least a fortnight. 



Samples of the Rubber have been sent home for commercial 

 valuation, also for an expert's opinion as to the method of prepara- 

 tion, for it must be remembered that the ordinary method of collect- 



