i8 7 
'//6 7 
more perpendicular the cut the less latex flowed, and per contra 
the more horizontal the cut the greater the flow. We therefore 
abandoned the original method and simply made a broad V, shaped 
incision fastening a small \ lb. tobacco tin at the apex of each .V : 
In all some fifty-five trees were tapped, and nearly 150 tins were 
used, averaging 3 tins per tree. Many of the last attached tins, 
however, had very little or no latex at all in them. We begun to 
tap at 8.30 A. M. with six Chinamen, and at 11.30 began collecting 
the tins, beginning of course with those first attached, and it was 
noticeable that the early tins had the greatest quantity of latex, 
and the trees cut after n A. M. scarcely flowed at all. It is therefore 
suggested that daylight is the best time to commence tapping 
keeping on till say, 9 a. m. In ail we collected three and a-half 
imperial pints of pure latex, which we brought to Malacca, where 
Mr. Tan Chay Yan coagulated it by boiling, ordinary earthenware 
chatties were used, over a wood fire, and the diluted latex was 
constantly stirred whilst boiling. After about an hour’s boiling, 
the rubber becomes coagulated into a mass, and is taken out and 
thrown into cold water, after which it is pressed to get rid off as 
much water as possible. Three separate boilings gave the fol- 
lowing results: — the ii imperial pint taken from the centrifugal 
machine gave 14 ozs. of dry rubber; a second pint boiled sepa- 
rately gave 7 1 ozs. and the third pint yielded iof ozs. The water 
was quite turbid indeed milky when the rubber was taken out after 
a little more than an hours boiling, shewing that all the rubber had 
not been taken indeed that was so for I was informed that boiling 
the water 2 \ longer gave an additional 2 \ ozs. of rubber. 
So that we arrive at the following results : — 
Now as regards the number of trees tapped our object was not 
to see how much rubber we could get from one tree but rather to 
see how much marketable rubber could be got from a known quantity 
of milk in a given time. As regards the capacity of each tree yielding 
latex that must still be a matter for experiment, I feel convinced 
however, that the same quantity of rubber could be taken daily from 
the same trees for at least a fortnight. 
Samples of the Rubber have been sent home for commercial 
valuation, also for an expert’s opinion as to the method of prepara- 
tion, for it must be remembered that the ordinary method of collect- 
