AND THE MALAY STATES 
53 
visited other parts of the plantation, and saw a great deal of fins rubber. 
At present there is an excellent market for the seed, as so many new 
plantations are going in. As a better preparation, however, against the 
time, when the seed will be a drug in the market, my host was experi- 
menting with an oil made from the seeds. With a rude native mill he 
turned out an oil which the native women eagerly purchased to burn 
before their gods, while the pressed cake made an excellent food for 
cattle. During the forenoon I saw a large Ceara rubber tree cut down 
and it seemed to have no latex in it at all. I also saw a Para rubber tree, 
SCENE IN KELANI VALLEY, CEYLON. 
self sown, growing out of a cleft in the rock where there was apparently 
no soil, the trunk being ten inches in diameter and apparently very 
thrifty. 
One of the most interesting features of this plantation was the 
rubber curing house, where the milk is coagulated and the rubber pre- 
pared for market. This is a one-story, brick building, 30X80 feet, 
smelling for all the world like a dairy, as one steps within its doors. At 
one end of the room is a long table upon which are hundreds of enamelled 
iron pans, capable of holding about a quart each. Into these pans the 
milk is poured through a cheese cloth strainer, after having been previ- 
ously strained in the field. To it is often added a very little acetic acid 
— a few drops only. This is allowed to stand over night, and in the 
morning there is to be found in each pan a pure white pancake of rubber, 
soft, spongy, and full of water. Each cake is rolled on a zinc-covered 
