Gums, Resins, 



208 



[September, 1911. 



in Dutch Guiana is a small one on gold. 

 It is probable that when cultivated 

 rubber is produced in quantity it will be 

 required to bear its pro rata of the State 

 burdens. The policy of the Government 

 has never been to embarass the planters; 

 on the contrary it has helped in many 

 enterprises, even going so far as to loan 

 money at a low rate of interest to many 

 of the planters whose estates suffered 

 through disease. 



Speaking of Crown lands and the wilds, 

 one at once remembers the bush negroes. 

 They were once servants, perhaps slaves, 

 gone into the hinterland and made little 

 settlements where they live by hunting, 

 fishing, and as little farming as possible. 

 In some respects they have lapsed into 

 savagery. They speak a mixture of 

 Dutch and Indian, a language of their 

 own which is analogous perhaps to the 

 pigeon English of the Chinese. They are 

 tractable and friendly if treated well, 

 and are sometimes used by planters with 

 excellent results. They are very honest, 

 and while they often borrow, a debt 

 with them is a sacred obligation. 

 Incidents are cited where a man has 

 travelled miles to town with a little 

 money accumulated penny by penny for 

 a long time to pay a debt contracted by 

 his grandfather years before. 



I think it was Jenman w ho estimated 

 that many of the mature balata trees 

 that he saw in the Guianas were at least 

 400 years old. Whether he hit it within 

 a century or so does not matter. Certain 

 it is that the tree is of slow growth, and 

 as an ordinary planting proposition is 

 not to be considered for a moment. The 

 tree which is locally known as the 

 " bully " or " boela," is botanically the 

 Mimusops globosa. It is found in French, 

 Dutch, and British Guiana, in Venezuela, 

 and indeed in various parts of Brazil. 

 It is very common in the Guianas, grow- 

 ing on sandy reefs that run in all direc- 

 tions through the lower country, and 

 also along the margins of streams in the 

 uplands. 



The beginning of gathering is the ex- 

 ploration party that locates the trees. 

 This consists of eight or ten men at 60 

 cents a day, under a foreman at 80 cents 

 a day, who go out into the bush in Sep- 

 tember, October and November, and stay 

 for weeks atatime, until they have locat- 

 ed a section where the trees are thick 

 enough to make gathering worth while. 

 A report is made to the Government 

 concerning the location, and the right to 

 gather balata is obtained. The laws are 

 very strict concerning tapping and de- 

 struction of the tree, or over-tapping, is 

 expressly prohibited. Only one-half of 



the bark area is tapped in one year, and 

 that area is rarely tapped again, The 

 reason is that the bark grows over 

 the wounds in irregular forms, making 

 it almost impossible to secure a surface 

 that can be bled in a satisfactory 

 manner. 



The gathering or tapping begins in 

 January. Bush negroes are not used 

 in this work, nor are the coolies. The 

 labourers are invariably town negroes 

 who have been contracted for before the 

 holidays. They have also secured ad- 

 vances of money of which they invari- 

 ably spend every cent in Christmas and 

 New Year's festivities. It is quite a 

 task to round up these contract labourers, 

 and very often the police are forced to 

 lend a hand in getting the expedition 

 started. The food supply which the 

 foreman looks after consists of flour, 

 split peas, molasses, salt, fish, beet and 

 pork, tobacco and matches, while each 

 man carries calabashes, a 5-gallon tin 

 can, a cutlass and a queer tin canister 

 tor a trunk. They go by boat up one of 

 the many rivers which may take a week 

 or two to the place they have picked 

 oat for the central camp. Here twenty- 

 five or thirty men make their head- 

 quarters. As soon as the shelters are 

 built, and they are erected very quickly, 

 the tanks for coagulating are made. 

 They are built on log foundation, the 

 bottom being about 8 feet from the 

 ground, and are shallow wooden pans 10 

 to 12 feet long and 6 to 8 inches deep. 

 They are made from boards split from 

 palm tree trunks, and the cracks are 

 carefully stopped up with balata until 

 watertight. A cover is also made to 

 keep out the rain and to prevent insects, 

 twigs, etc., from falling in. 



The collectors after breakfast spend a 

 short time discussing the weather pro- 

 babilities, and if it bids fair to be a day 

 free from rain they scatter for the parts 

 of the forest where they have located 

 untapped trees. In addition to cutlass, 

 calabashes and collecting can, each 

 workman constructs a rough ladder of 

 poles and bush rope. 



Tapping is begun at the foot of the 

 tree, where gr eat gashes are cut in the 

 tough bark, under which a calabash is 

 placed. Then on up the tree worker goes 

 cutting deep grooves two inches wide, 

 crisscrossing them so that the milk will 

 flow down a main channel into the cala- 

 bash. Eight or ten trees is a day's work 

 for one man and from them be should fill 

 the 5-gallon tin. This should give about 

 20 pounds of balata. The gatherer starts 

 back to camp about 2 in the afternoon 

 empties the latex into his tank and spends 



