India Rubber and Gutta Percha. 73 
more than half full, and occasionally a few may be filled 
to the brim. But if the tree has been much gnarled by tap- 
ping, whether it grows in the rich mud of the flats or on 
the dry up-land, many of the cups will be found to contain 
only about a tablespoonful of milk, and sometimes 
hardly that. On the following morning the operation is 
performed in the same way, only that the cuts or 
gashes beneath which the cups are placed are made 
from six to eight inches lower down the trunks than 
those of the previous day. Thus each day brings 
the cuts gradually lower, until the ground is reached. 
The collector then begins as high as he can reach, and 
descends as before, taking care however to make his 
cuts in separate places from those previously gashed. If 
the yield of milk from a tree is great, two rows of cups 
are put on at once, the one as high as can be reached 
and the other at the surface of the ground, and in the 
course of working, the upper row descending daily six or 
eight inches while the lower one ascends at the same 
rate, both rows in a lew days come together. When 
the produce of milk diminishes in long-wrought trees, 
two or three cups are put in various parts of the trunk 
where the bark is thickest. Although many of the trees 
of this class are large, the quantity of milk obtained is 
surprisingly little. This state of things is not the 
result of over-tapping as some have stated. Indeed, 
I do not believe it is possible to over-tap a tree if 
in the operation the wood is not left bare or injured; 
but where at every stroke the collector's axe en- 
ters the wood, the energies of the trees are occu- 
pied in forming new layers to cover the numerous 
K 
