October, 1912.] 



271 



FUNTUMIA RUBBER IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA. 



The following extracts are by the Agricultural News (July 20) from an 

 interesting report by the Provincial Forest Officer, Central Province, 

 Southern Nigeria, on the tapping of Puntumia rubber in Benin City Com- 

 munal Plantations, in 1910. 



The plantations are formed by the village people under the super- 

 vision and encouragement of the Forest Staff. It has been, and is still, 

 the practice each year for the Forest Staff to collect seed from the forest, 

 take it to the villages and make nurseries with the help of the village 

 people. Later in the year the Forest Staff supervises the planting out 

 into the plantations, the labour for all operations being supplied by the 

 villages and utilized under the direction of the Forest Staff- In each 

 village there are one cr more ' Ogas ' or headmen who are told off to look 

 after the plantations, and whose duty it is to see that they are kept 

 weeded, etc. These Ogas are usually exempted from other work. 



Tappinq. 



Tapping was commenced on June 8, the greater part of May having 

 been taken up in building a drying shed at Benin City for the reception 

 of the rubber when it came in from the plantations. The trees were 

 tapped on the full herring-bone system, to a height of 10 feet, and half- 

 way round the tree. 



Coagulation. 



This was done by boiling, as it was thought unwise to introduce 

 acids or chemicals of any description for the purpose. My opinion 

 is that all the operations should be done in a way that the natives 

 can easily imitate. It was a matter of some experiment before we 

 arrived at the correct quantity of water to use, when cooking, to prevent 

 burning ; but it was eventually gauged to a nicety, and I think I may say 

 that after the first mouth there was not a single buscuit spoiled by burn- 

 ing, whereas at first quite 50 per cent, were burned. 



The boiling was done in enamel-lined saucepans holding about 3 pints, 

 putting in about 1^ pints of water to a quarter of a pint of latex ; the 

 water was brought to boiling point before the latex was put in. It was 

 found necessary to get the proportion of water to latex fairly correct as 

 too little water results in burning, whilst too much causes the whole 

 tning to overflow and thus waste the rubber. During the coagulation the 

 rubber is kept off the sides of the vessel with a clean stick, and the mass 

 is cooked until the remaining liquid becomes quite clear. 



A point worth mentioning here is that fresh latex, that is that just 

 taken from the trees, cannot be cooked satisfactorily. It is impossible to 

 get the water clear, and in the efforts to do so the rubber becomes over- 

 cooked and too tough to roll out. If taken out whilst still soft enough to 

 roll there is necessarily a large amount of rubber left behind in the water, 

 and this of course is wasted. On the other hand, if the latex is allowed 

 to stand for twelve hours, the water is cleaied without excessive cooking ; 

 the rubber is in a pliant state capable of easy rolling, and there is no 

 waste. Evidently some mechanical change takes place in the latex whilst 

 standing, which makes the globules cohere more readily. 



After cooking, the rubber is thrown on to a table or other flat surface 

 and rolled out into thin biscuits with a wooden roller. The side of a box 

 and a bottle answer the purpose quite well, in the absence of more con- 

 venient apparatus. 



