November, 19080 



411 



Saps and Exudations. 



The trees being often ten minutes apart, 

 the seringuero takes 2-3 hours to go 

 round the estrada, and he then returns 

 with a tin vessel of about ten liters 

 capacity, pouring into it the contents 

 of the tigelinhas, cleaning these out 

 with the finger. The empty cups are 

 then hung again in the old place. 



About midday the seringuero gets 

 back with the milk, and must at once 

 clot it, as that which coagulates natur- 

 ally in the vessel gives inferior rubber. 

 A lire is built and fed with the nuts of 

 the Urucuri palm, Attalea speciosa, 

 Martin?, or the wood of the oily Masse- 

 randuba, Mimusops elata, Allem. When 

 the fire is developing a thick smoke, a 

 somewhat funnel-shaped chimney (Boiao) 

 of tin or earthernware is put over it; 

 this has an opening on the lower edge 

 to admit air. The latter gives the hotter 

 smoke, but is more easily broken. 



As soon as the smoke pours freely out 

 of the top of the funnel, smoking is 

 begun. In the loop of a cord hung up 

 near the funnel is a round staff of wood, 

 called a pao, so arranged that it can be 

 easily placed either over the smoke or 

 over the vessel of milk. With a cup 

 (cuia) made out of a fruit the seringuero 

 then pours milk over the pao and holds 

 it in the smoke, turning it slowly round, 

 one end being in the loop, the other on 

 his knee. The smoke contains much 

 antiseptic and coagulating material, 

 such as creosote and acetic acid.* As 

 soon as the milk coagulates, which is 

 known by the colour changing from 

 white to yellow, fresh milk is poured on, 

 and held again in the smoke, and so on, 

 until all the milk is finished. In this 

 way, often after several days, a ball of 

 rubber weighing 25 to 70 kilograms (56 to 

 150 lbs.) is made, and drawn off the pao. 

 Smaller blocks are also made by using a 

 kind of flat paddle and holding it in 

 the hand. 



The work is at first slow, the surface 

 for evaporation being small. A litre 

 of milk at first lasts half au hour, later 

 only ten minutes. The smoke of urucuri 

 nuts produces a quicker coagulation, and 

 so does hot smoke. 



If in the vessel of milk small particles 

 of clotted rubber are found, they are 

 carefully removed by the better workers, 

 though many work them into the ball of 

 rubber and deceive the purchaser who 

 does not cut it into portions. These 

 pieces of rubber are not rendered anti- 

 septic, and set up decay, &c. 



* It was on tho known composition of this 

 smoke that Mr. Parkin based his method of 

 making biscuits, by healing and adding creosote 

 and acetic acid.— Ed. 



When the vessel of milk is empty, it is 

 held over the smoke to coagulate the 

 film that remains, which is mixed with 

 the pieces taken out of the milk to form 

 scrap, known as sernamby. 



Each seringuero usually has two 

 estradas, and as he does one on one day 

 and the other on the next, and has to 

 make two arracaos of 35 cuts each, on 

 every tree, he will take 140 days at least 

 but holidays, &c, usually lengthen the 

 time to six or even eight months. 



Injury often results from the serin- 

 guero making three arracaos on a tree 

 that should only have two, or from his 

 cutting into the wood. In some places 

 scaffoldings are fixed to let the upper 

 parts of the tree be tapped. This also 

 causes much harm. 



In consequence of the liability to 

 injury, trees are not termed tappable 

 until of one foot in diameter, whereas on 

 plantations smaller trees are tapped. 



(To be continued.) 



[This article, written by a trained 

 observer, deserves careful study. Ex- 

 periments are being set on foot to 

 determine the value of the preliminary 

 cut at 12 feet from the ground. Those 

 estates which, as some do, open a fresh 

 cut every two days, will be pleased to 

 find their method supported by Amazon 

 experience. In the preparation of the 

 rubber, it is evident that the only 

 difference from Ceylon is in the fact 

 that smoked ' wet block ' is made. Mr. 

 Parkin, years ago, showed that heating 

 the milk almost to boiling, and clotting 

 with acetic acid and creosote, gave the 

 best results. The biscuits he made in 

 1898-9 are still quite sound, whereas 

 many of those made without creosote, 

 or in the cold, decay within a couple of 

 years. The process will take time to 

 work out, but we feel almost certain 

 that some form of making the biscuits 

 as described by Mr. Parkin, and making 

 these into wet block, will ultimately 

 come in. — Ed.] 



THE GUAYULE SITUATION. 



(By Labroy in Journ. d' Agr. Trop.,31 

 Aug., 1908, p. ?dJ.) 

 Reviewed by J. C. Willis. 



There seems no doubt that the 

 exploitation of this shrub is going on 

 much more rapidly than its natural 

 reproduction, while there is as yet no 

 planting of it. 



