IN NICARAGUA 
175 
all of Castilloa, which looked excellently. Then we returned to the 
Manhattan House for noon breakfast, and in the afternoon walked 
across lots to look at the rubber on the Cukra plantation. Just as we 
got there our first real shower came down. That was not any spring 
rain ; it was more like a cloudburst, and kept us penned in the house 
for nearly an hour. It cleared off, however, as suddenly as it came on, 
and then we began to examine the interesting experiments that were 
being carried on by Mr. Waldron. 
He had already begun tapping some of his six-year-old trees, and 
close to the house where we had taken refuge from the shower was 
his coagulating and .drying house. In this house were galvanized iron 
_\! AN H ATTA N PLA NTAT10N D\V ELLI NG HOUSE, 
cans holding half a barrel, each filled with latex mixed with water and 
formaldehyde, while from the ceiling hung long strips of rubber being 
air dried. Mr. Waldron used the formaldehyde to keep the latex from 
coagulating too soon, and he washed out the vegetable acids and the 
albumen by diluting the latex and creaming it. He found some diffi- 
culty in coagulating, and had, therefore, fitted up a couple of caldrons 
close to the house, and was boiling the latex. The rubber appeared to 
be very clean, but a little short. Indeed. Mr. Waldron acknowledged 
that he thought it was coalesced instead of coagulated. 
From the coagulating house we walked down through the rubber 
