14 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Each man has his own trees to care for ranging from 60 to 

 150 trees according to the distance between them, and this 

 number is called a path or a road. The size of a rubber planta- 

 tion is estimated by the number of paths or roads it contains. 

 The roads are mere footpaths which lead through the forest 

 from one rubber tree to another. 



The sap flows most freely in the morning. By noon the 

 rubber man comes back to empty the milk into a gourd or 

 bucket. Only a few tablespoonfuls can be gathered from each 

 wound in a day, and if he can gather two quarts of milk from 

 his path he thinks he has done very well. The next process is 

 turning the milky sap into the rubber of commerce. The sap 

 coagulates upon exposure to the air. The fine rubber is cured 

 by smoking, and the best rubber comes from the sap which is 

 smoked a few hours after it is gathered. It will harden best 

 under the influence of smoke. The fuel is usually palm nuts 

 because they make a dense smoke. The sap is poured into a 

 broad bowl and a long paddle is thrust into the milk. It is held 

 in the smoke a minute and turned rapidly so that no drop of the 

 precious sap may fall into the fire. This is repeated until a 

 mass of rubber as large as a six-pound ham is formed. It is 

 then cut through one side and the paddle is taken out. Now it 

 is ready for shipment. 



The solid loss to plants of winter twigs is incalculably 

 more than is commonly supposed. Before leaf fall, all the trees 

 form their winter buds in the axils of the leaves. After severe 

 storms, twigs bearing these buds are broken oft' and scattered 

 here and there and this is a loss to the tree. A solid loss of 

 great commercial value is cork. Cork is the outer layer of 

 bark of an evergreen or live oak, which grows in Portugal and 

 Spain. When the tree is about seventeen years old, the first 

 stripping of the bark takes place. Thereafter it is stripped 

 every eight years until it is 150 years old. This operation is 



