Aug. 1, 1902.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
81 
The plantation "El Baul," until recently the pro- 
perty of Joachim Astnrias, is now in possession of 
a wholesale mercantile firm of HambHrg, who are 
extensively interested, like many other German housea 
in coffee planting in Guatemala, and its management 
is in the hands of Fritz Kouig, He, by the way, is 
a brother-in-law of P. Ossaye, owuer of the coffee, 
vanila, and rubber plantations "Arecal" and "Seamay" 
in the same region. Such details are mentioned 
here as indicating that large and permanent planting 
interests exist in Guatemala, based upon outside 
capital, as a result of which much experience has baen 
gained in such matters, which is shared by many 
persons of repute and success, whose confidence in 
the practicability of rubber cultivation is entitled 
to consideration. 
According to Eene Guerin, director of the Central 
Laboratory of Guatemala, writing in the Journal cV 
Agricuhtire Tropkale, the plantation "El Banl" com- 
prises about 50, ( 00 rubber trees, of which 30,000 have 
reached a productive stage, being froui 10 to 15 years 
old. Dr. Preuss, by the way, writing two years 
earlier, mentioned 20,000 trees between the ages 
of 15 and 20 years. The soil, very liberally 
watered, is divided into sandy and black-earth zones, 
though no difference has been observed either in 
the grown or the productiveness of the trees planted 
in the two zones. The vegetation, is continuous, but 
at the beginning of the dry season — March and 
April, when the seeds ripen — the leaves turn slightly 
yellow and fall, 
The trees growing in the plains furnish at all 
seasons a late.x of the same quality. The trees 
on the higher altitudes, and which are for this reason 
less well watered, yield during the rainy eeaiou a 
larger quantity of latex than during the dry season. 
However, as this latex is less rich in caoutchouc, 
the trne yield is the same. The rubbr trees which 
have developed in the plains, exposed to all 
weathers, begin yielding seed from the third year. 
Those growing in the woods develop much slower, 
and at that age have not reached ft height above 3 
meters. But as soon as these have attained the 
height of the surrounding trees, and receive the 
sun's rays direct, their development proceeds rapidly 
and they reach large dimensions and possess ex- 
ceptional vigor. 
In extracting the latex, incisions are made in the 
bark horizontally, at a distance of Ij inch -apart, 
BO as to not girdle the tree completely. The latex, 
coagulates spontaneously on exposure to the air, 
and at the end of two or three days the rubber 
can be gathered from the tree in bauds, which, 
after being washed, may be rolled together into 
balls. Each tree yields about 125 grams of rubber 
(from incibions in the trunk alone, and without 
the branches), and as the cuts will heal within 
three mouths, it is possible to make four ex- 
tractions each year, giving a total yield of 500 
grams [=1 1-10 poubd.J The annual yield of 1000 
grams[-_2 1-5 poundsj mentioned in Dr. Preuss'a 
report, resulted from making incisions in the branches 
aa well as the trunks, but this involves an 
undesirable amount of labor, 
•Much thought has been given on the plantation 
"El Baul " to the choice of a tool for incising the 
rubber trees, with a view to affording a suitable 
outlet for the latex, without cutting into the wood, 
which contains no latex, and the wounding of which 
tends to decay. Dr. Preuss found in use in Gua- 
temala for this purpose a sort of transformed saber, 
a sketch of which appears in the first of the two 
cuts herewith, Senor Asturias has had made to 
order, in the Uuited States, the tool illustrated in the 
second cut, which is regarded as superior to the 
old model. The latter comprises a blade of tem- 
pered steel — square at the end, about 'A inches 
long, and at the top about IJ inches wide — mounted 
in a hard wood handle 3J inches long. The steel 
blade diminishes in thickness from the handle, 
until at the other end it does not exceed the thick- 
ness of a playing card. The left angle of the 
blade is turned over so as to form a rounded 
gutter, about finger wide, and at 45 degrees to the 
axis of the too). The left side of the blade ia 
notched right at the gutter, so that the lower end 
of the gutter projects at that side. The parts that 
do the cutting are the two sides of the turned 
over angle. 
M. Guerin states that Senor Asturias intends try- 
ing a new process of extraction, by the employing 
a vacuum, in the hope of accelerating the flow of 
latex, and adds: "It would be desirable if other 
cultivators, intelligent and progressive like M, 
Asturias, would display the same activity in the 
improvement of rubber cultivat'on and the rubber 
product." In too many cases, however, the collection 
of rubber is left to the native, who injure the trees 
unnecessarily, besides producing a poor quality of 
rubber by the use of soap or vegetable compounds, 
whereas by the spontaneous coagulation of the latex, 
after the complete elimination of the serum, an article 
of superior quality may be derived from the same 
trees. 
It was found by Senor Astnrias that trees on 
his plpnlaticu which presented precisely the same 
apptuiaiice, yet jieldcd different qualities of rubber, 
M, Guerin forwarded specimens to the museum of 
natural history at Paris, where Jules Poisson, of 
the museum staff, has discovered differences in the 
fructiferous receptacles of the seeds, and if further 
engaged in endeavoring to discover weather different 
species exist. While some of the trees yield caout- 
chouc of a superior quality, the product of others 
remains after coagulation sticky, glue like, and 
with little elasticity. There i? also a perceptible 
difference in the color of the latex, that from both 
trees being white, but in one case with a tinge of 
yellow and the other with a grayish tinge. 
The question of differences in the product of the 
Castilloa elastica is by no means new, but gener- 
ally the trees cot yielding the true rubber have 
been supposed to hear outward marks by means of 
which they could be avoided by persons having 
any experience in hunting rubber. By the way, in 
connection with the subject, it is interesting to 
quote from Dr. Preuss: "One has repeatedly asserted 
to me that there were, on the other hand, places 
where Castilloas exist that are rich in caoutchouc, 
and yet whose latex flows along the trunk, so as to 
be collected in liquid state in vessels, but I have 
never been able myself to prove the fact." Which 
would indicate an interesting difi'erence between the 
trees on " El Baul," the latex of which, as above 
stated, coagulates on the trunks, and thc^e ia 
Mexico, for example, whose latex flows more freely 
and requires to be coagulated by other means.— 
India liubher World, 
THE TREATMENT OF OLIVE OIL 
IN FRANCE. 
In an interesting report on the treatment of 
olive oil in France, K. P. Skinner, UnitGd States 
Consul-General at Marseilles, points out that the 
manufacture of cuide clive oil in Europe has un- 
dergone comparatively little change since Scrip- 
tural times. The olive tree gives a good yield 
of fruit every two years, which ^ gathered in 
France in either November or December. In Italy 
the picking season is in either February or March. 
The rule is to collect the olives before their maturity, 
without which tl^ey fall, become bruised and 
give an oil green in color and &harp in t»sts, 
