JAMAICA. 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



Vol, Vl 



Hew Series AUGUST, 1899, p . VTTT 



COLLECTING RUBBER. 



Mr. Jenman, Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens, British 

 Guiana, has contributed the following remarks on collecting rubber a-id 

 balata to the 4k Argosy " with references to some paragraphs on the 

 subject in the Annual Report of Mr. Curtis, Superintendent of the 

 Penang Botanic Garden. Mr. Curtis's experiment is interesting in 

 showing how to obtain an increased amount of rubber from the tree, 

 but it remains to be seen whether the total amount drained in this way 

 during the life of the tree is more than that obtained in the old-fash- 

 ioned way of single cuts renewed from year to year : — 



Mr. Jenman directs the attention of balata collectors to the method 

 of tapping described below, in which it is shown that a tree can be 

 milked day after day by simply taking a slight shaving off the sides of 

 the gutters. As is well known to every one who has collected balata 

 or other rubbers, — in two or three hours after the gutters are made on 

 the trees the milk stops running. This appears to be chiefly due to the 

 coagulation of the milk by the drying influence of the air on the edges 

 of the incised bark, — a design of nature in its own interest, not to ex- 

 haust itself under damage from whatever cause, accidental or otherwise; 

 but by removing this film, the next and following days increased quan- 

 tities of milk from day to day will run, thus greatly increasing the yield 

 of gutta trom a single tree. This is a matter very important to know, 

 for it will not only tell in the yield, but in the economical working of 

 rubber forests, and in the cost of collecting. The practice hitherto, 

 has been to tap a tree once and leave it, tapping it again a year or so 

 afterwards by making new channels, and then leaving the tree for good. 

 But by the method described, a tree can be milked like a maipurie or 

 bush-cow every day, giving more and more milk each time for a 

 limited period, which must be determined by thy collector, in his 

 knowledge of and consideration for the permanent health of the tree. The 

 system of collecting in the past has not only been incredibly wasteful, 

 but ruinous to the forest, which, indeed, would have died out but for the 

 fact that the trees, though so greatly damaged and exhausted by the 

 recklessly conducted work on them, and, perhaps, to some extent, 

 because of that — for however great the stress, nature never lets 



