36 



" This mixture is to be allowed to remain in the cask twenty-four 

 hours, after which the india rubber floats at the top of the liquid. The 

 water may then be carefully drawn off by removing the spigot from the 

 lower end of the cask, and watching to stop the flow as soon as any 

 indiarubber begins to pass This is easily ascertained by observing, 

 accompanying the blackish water which flows from the cask small, long, 

 and thin threads of rubber. When all the dirty water shall have been 

 removed from the cask, other four parts of clean water to one of the 

 rubber are to be again added, and after twenty-four hours the same ope- 

 ration is to be gone through with. The remaining liquid should then 

 be placed in small receptacles, with little spigots through which the 

 remaining water is to be drawn off. After this, add to every 100 

 pounds of the now purified rubber milk a pint bottle full of a solution 

 containing one ounce of alum dissolved in hot water. The new rubber 

 must be well stirred, and as fast as coagulated lumps appear, they are to 

 be carefully removed from the liquid and shaped into a ball, this is to 

 be then put in a press and all the remaining water squeezed out of it. 

 After being removed from the press the rubber is to be placed in the 

 shade, to await its turn for being packed up, to be sent to a foreign 

 market." 



Yield. — Dr. Morris states : — " A large tree of Castilioa, say 2 feet 

 in diameter, is said to yield eight gallons of milk when first cut. Each 

 gallon of milk, in the proper season, will make about two pounds of 

 rubber, of the value of $10." 



Mr. R. Cross speaks of trees from 160 to 180 feet high, with a diameter 

 of 5 feet, and a yield of lOOlbs. of india rubber. 



Experiments in the Botanic Gardens here give results which coincide 

 with those obtained in the Gardens in Ceylon, on which Dr. Trimen in 

 Report for 1893 writes as follows : — 



" A sample of this rubber sent home on trial, grown on an estate in 

 Matale, was favourably reported on. being valued at 2s. 3d. to 2s. 7d. 

 per pound. The quality of this kind of rubber produced in Ceylon has 

 always been excellent, but my experience hitherto has been that the 

 amount of caoutchouc obtained from the milk is too little to make it a 

 profitable cultivation ; the yield per tree seems very small." 



Prospects in Jamaica. — The following letter addressed to the Go- 

 vernor, expresses a favourable opinion of the prospects of planting this 

 tree in Jamaica : 



Mr. Pierre Jay to His Excellency the Governor. 



38 West Street, New York City, 



December 7th, 1893. 



Sir, 



Some days ago I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Frederick J. Grant, 

 who had just returned from Bolivia. He spoke of the interest felt at 

 present in Jamaica about the cultivation of the rubber tree, and asked 

 me to write to you anything I might have learned on the subject in my 

 recent trip to the west coast of South America. 



Although the report which I am about to give to my friends on the 



