caoutchouc ob ENBiABUBBER (Geara). 
Nine or ten trees gave a total yield of 20 ounces of dry rubber, 
the largest quantity from one tree being 4 ounces. The 
samples were submitted through Kew to Mr. S. W. Silver, 
who reported that sample 1 was dry and compact, free from 
extraneous impurities, and agreeing in all respects with Ceara 
rubber of good and sound quality. When washed and dried 
it gave a loss of 8 per cent., i.e., less than is met with in Ceara 
rubber of the finest quality. Its valuation was 2s. 9d. to 3s. 
a pound. Sample 2 was valued at Is. 3d. only. 
Interest in this product was at its height in 1883, and nu¬ 
merous experiments were tried to determine the best and 
cheapest methods of obtaining the rubber. Several instru¬ 
ments were invented for tapping the trees, e.g., a knife with 
two parallel blades £ inch apart, which was drawn down the 
bark, the strip of bark thus separated being taken out. This 
was afterwards modified into a V-shaped knife, the point of 
the V being placed at the cambium. Another tool was a spur¬ 
like double wheel with sharp points provided with guards. 
This was run along the bark, making numerous pricks in it. 
The object of all these tools was partly to avoid the necessity 
of removing the outer bark, as it was now being realized that 
the yield was too small to allow of any expense in collecting. 
On some estates the system adopted was to go round daily, 
bleeding the trees with the pricker, the little tears of rubber 
being afterwards collected into balls. Others made long cuts 
down the bark from about 5 feet above the soil, and collected 
the milk in tins, coagulating it by simple standing or by adding 
a little alcohol or by heating. Others removed the outer bark 
in strips, so that the inner bark should bleed, and so on. None 
of these methods, however, gave satisfactory results, and with 
the growing rush into tea interest in Ceara rubber died out 
from 1884, and in many places the trees were cut down to 
make room for tea. The general opinion of the planters was, 
and is, that this product pays to harvest, but not to cultivate. 
