( 225 ) 
to just only cut down to the cambium layer and not into the 
wood so that the wound may heal as soon as possible. Just alter 
the first cut the latex flows freely, fills up the gaping cut and 
flows over, but before very long, say within two minutes at the 
outside, the flow ceases because the latex begins to coagulate ot 
its own accord in the cut. Arrangements are made to collect the 
latex that falls on mats made of thin strips of bamboo woven 
together. Listle boys on the ground shift these mats about under 
each cut as the man np the tree makes it, so that the dripping 
latex can cover the mat. Before the end of the day this chipped 
rubber has joined together on the mat and has coagulated and 
formed a regular skin which on drying can be pulled off say m 48 
hours, or less sometimes, and be further dried. The latex that 
has coagulated in the cuts turns a reddy brown colour, highly 
appreciated in the London market, and is pulled out of the cut in 
about 48 to 56 hours afterwards, yielding fine elastic lids of 
rubber. This rubber is then slightly handpicked to get rid of 
pieces of bark, dirt, etc., and is laid out on shelves in an open 
shed to be air-dried. After drying this fine red rubber that 
coagulates in the cuts is pressed by a screw press in cubes of one 
hundredweight each, which are wrapped round with cheap white 
cloth and a double covering of gunny bag. The cubes retain their 
shape and are easily portable. Such rubber has fetched four 
shillings and threepence a pound recently in the London market. 
The latex that dripped on the mats is similarly cleaned, dried, 
and packed separately, and realizes very little less, this latter, 
which we locally name “mat” rubber, is sometimes liable to 
ferment, as some interior portion of a large drop of latex has not 
perhaps properly coagulated, and hence at times this rubber 
sometimes fetches a penny fess per pound. . Formerly mat rubber 
used to turn black and did not fetch so much. Latterly 1 
ordered the mats to be soaked in a solution of the bark that 
comes off the tree in tapping. This dyes the mats red. The 
white latex when dripping down seems to be tanned by this dye 
on the mats in a similar way to that in the cuts where latex rests 
and coagulates. The reason for early coagulation is perhaps due 
to this tannic acid effect of the bayk*on the sides of the cut and 
the dye on the mats. The “mat” rubber we export is mostly 
red. Of the whole outturn of our plantations, some 15,000 lbs. 
last season, the proportion of “mat” rubber to that collected 
from the cuts as coagulated very elastic rubber was only 25 p.e. 
of the whole outturn. The method of collection seems, therefore, 
as good as can be devised. Of course it is more Costly to win 
this latex from the Ficus Elastica than it is to win latex from 
the Para (Hevea Braziliensis) tree, owing to the fact that the men 
who operate have to climb the trees twice to get the rubber. 
Camp Darragaon, E. S. CARR. 
Goalpara District, Cons. Forest, Assam. 
6 th April, 1905. 
tftOQ 
