283 
to  ascertaining  what  quantity  of  rubber  a mature  tree  will  yield 
without  being  injured,  a specimen  has  been  tapped  twice  a week 
for  the  past  three  months  and  the  coagulated  latex  (it  is  not  all 
jDure  rubber,  as  I shall  explain  later)  now  amounts  to  a trifle  over 
three  pounds  The  experiment  is  going  on,  as  the  tree  shows  no 
sign  of  exhaustion  either  constitutionally  or  in  the  flow  of  latex. 
Early  dawn  is  much  the  best  time  for  tapping,  and  the  operation 
should  cease  about  8 a.m.  The  quantity  collected  from  each  of 
these  tappings  has  varied  from  half  an  ounce  to  two  and  a quarter 
ounces. 
What  we  have  to  do  now  is  to  raise  nurseries  of  seedlings  from 
the  good  trees  and  try  to  eliminate  the  bad  ones.  Being  so  hardy 
during  long  periods  of  drought,  the  Ceara  tree  would  adopt  itself 
readily  to  many  of  the  scrub  tracts  at  elevations  ranging  from  r,ooo 
to  3,000  feet,  with  an  annual  rainfall  of  25  to  40  inches.  We  know 
of  course  that  it  grows  vigourously  at  higher  elevations  where  the 
rainfall  is  heavy.  But  there  seems  to  be  a doubt  (although  nothing 
is  proved)  if  the  outturn  of  rubber  would  be  as  plentiful  and  good 
under  tlie  latter  conditions  of  growth.  Personally  I am  in  favour 
of  the  Maidan,  as  the  best  location  for  a Ceara  rubber  indusrty  on 
an  extensive  scale.  This  you  will  naturally  think  cannot  be  of 
much  advantage  to  the  planter,  who  is  confined  to  the  hills.  But 
in  a large  concern  of  this  kind  the  planter,  with  his  matured  ex- 
perience and  larger  capital,  is  bound  to  have  a share  sooner  or  later. 
It  is  now  proved  beyond  a doubt  tliat  the  Ceara  tree  is  wholly 
adopted  to  the  climate  of  Southern  India.  It  is  also  being  proved 
that  as  it  approaches  maturity  some  varieties  of  the  tree  are  highly 
charged  widi  latex,  and  I may  here  state  that  the  dry  climate  of 
the  plains  is  all  in  favour  of  a pure  rubber  being  easily  prepared 
from  the  latter.  i-Vmerican  imports  of  the  rubber  into  the  United 
Kingdom  are  valued  at  a somewhat  lower  rate  than  similar  products 
of  Para  and  C>istilloa.  But  with  the  improved  methods  of  puri- 
fying  the  actual  rubber  by  the  extraction  of  hurtful  ingredients 
such  as  phosphates,  resin  and  albuminous  matter,  the  best  tree  of 
the  future  will  be  the  one  producing  the  largest  quantity  of  pure 
rubber  or  caoutchouc.  The  latter  is  sus[)cnded  in  the  latex  fluid 
in  the  form  of  minute  globules  and  needs  to  be  separated  in  much 
the  same  way  that  cream  is  separated  from  milk.  An  ideal  pre- 
paration of  pure  rubber  would  be  to  drain  the  latex  from  the  tree 
by  means  of  a siphon  into  a kind  of  churn  where  the  caoutchouc 
is  separated  by  centrifugal  force.  It  follows  from  this  that  any 
rubber  at  once  depreciates  in  value  when  it  is  allowed  to  congulate 
with  all  its  impurities  as  it  is  taken  from  the  tree.  A ball  of  rub- 
ber, for  instance,  taken  from  a tree  a few  days  ago,  may  be  full  of 
hurtful  ingredients  rendering  the  whole  mass  subject  to  the  growth 
of  fungoid  disease  and  putrelaction,  results  which  are  greatly  aggra- 
vated in  a damp  climate.  The  old  American  remedy  to  prevent 
disease  was  sun  drying  and  smoking.  But  that  is  only  partially 
effective  and  does  not  dry  the  rubber. 
\\"c  now  come  to  a brief  review  of  Cnstilloa  clastica,  which  has  also 
