Jan. 1908.] 



71 



during the same time he attached 946 tiehelas to the trees. On 35 trees he had 

 placed one tichela, on 103 trees he had placed two, on 128 trees he had placed three, 

 on 70 trees he had placed four, and on the remainder of the trees he had placed five 

 tiehelas. The average of the trees measured was 10 inches in diameter. 



At 10 o'clock the picker returned to the starting point with his balde, or 

 empty bucket, and began to gather the latex which had exuded from the Rubber 

 trees since placing the tiehelas on same. The tiehelas were left by the trunk of th e 

 tree for the nest operation when the picker was tapping same. 



At 3 p.m. he returned to camp with his balde of latex to where the buyon or 

 smoking furnace was located. In this part of Bolivia the wood of the Chiri Palm 

 tree is used to fabricate smoke, while lower down the Amazonian Water-shed the 

 nut of the Mutiku tree is used. Both create the dense smoke necessary for the 

 coagulation of latex. 



The balde containing the latex was weighed on the store scale — not very 

 accurate— and scaled with the weight of the pail 4 lb. 23 lb. The latex was then 

 poured into a dish, and placed near the fire, when the picker after warming his 

 paddle-shaped baton in the smoke, proceeded to pour the latex over same with a 

 tichela fastened to the end of a two foot handle. I may mention here for the benefit 

 of rubber planters who want to brand their rubber without injuring same, that 

 the best way is to have the brand either cut into the paddle, or raised on same 

 so that the coagulation of latex on same affixes the brand on the rubber, either 

 engraved or embossed. The paddle after being covered with latex was revolved in 

 the smoke rapidly until coagulated. This occupied from eight to ten seconds, when 

 afresh addition of latex was added to the paddle, and again the latter was revolved 

 in the smoke until coagulated. This was repeated until the whole of the latex was 

 coagulated into one large bolacha of rubber attached to the paddle. During the 

 process I had the paddle with some rubber attached weighed, and it turned the scall 

 at 14 lb., while the remainder of the latex in the dish, with weight of dish deducted 

 weighed 7 lb. The picker continued to add the remaining latex to the paddle until 

 the coagulation was completed, and the paddle was again weighed and turned the 

 scale at 21 lb. The weight of the paddle was 2 lbs., so that there were 19 lb. of 

 rubber for 19 lb. of latex. This indicates that in the rapid coagulation of latex 

 containing a high percentage of rubber there is no weight lost. The balde was then 

 filled with water to the same height as formerly occupied by the latex, and weighed 

 for the purpose of determining approximately the difference of the specific gravity 

 between the latex and the water, and to the surprise of those present it weighed 

 the same. 



After two hours the newly-made rubber was cut from the paddle by running 

 a knife on two sides of the bolacha from the handle down, and being in one piece is 

 displayed two anchors, the Company's brand, on one side of the rubber. It was 

 then turned into the store, and sixteen hours after, this same bolacha of rubber was 

 weighed, and was found to have lost 5£ lb. in weight. Twenty days after it was 

 again weighed with a further loss of 3£ lb. This would illustrate to my mind that 

 rapid coagulation is a mistake, and that each coating of latex added to the 

 coagulated bolacha of rubber should be properly browned with the smoke, instead 

 of making it only sufficiently solid to prevent dripping from the paddle. This extra 

 smoking would improve the keeping qualities of the rubber and increase the 

 price of same. , 



The trees used tor the experiment were an average estrado, but most of the 

 trees, as indicated by the tiehelas attached, had been overtapped during previous 

 years. This was because the picker did not care to tap new estrados further afield 

 on account of their being at a greater distance from his habitation. He worked two 



