Balata and the Balata Industry. 197 
operation required. The largest trees of all are rarely 
in any effectual degree tapped standing. Several cir- 
cumstances contribute to secure this immunity. Com- 
paratively, their bark is very hard from the accumulated 
layers of indurated tissue already described ; then their 
circumference is so great as to be too flat to be conveni- 
ently grooved by a cutlass, and the slight ribs developed 
by the primary root-branches and the shallow hollows 
resulting between them, which invariably characterise 
the base of such trees, prevent the grooves being made 
of any considerable length. Because of these difficulties 
the trees are left. As soon as the collector has finished 
one tree he leaves it, with the milk running, and moves 
off to another and, if they are at all near, will in this 
way bleed twenty in the morning's work. The average 
collectors accomplish this ; dexterous ones do in the 
same time as many as thirty. It takes from five to ten 
minutes to cut the channels in each tree, if a ladder is 
not used, and the milk runs from forty to sixty minutes. 
At first it forms a little rivulet, running into the calabash, 
but after about twenty minutes or half an hour it only 
drips. The milk runs best in the cool of the morning, so 
that collectors like to finish the work of tapping by 
11 a.m. After this they rest and the trees are allowed 
to drip for an hour or so, when the calabashes are col- 
lected and the milk poured into the goobees ; a funnel 
to conduct it into the narrow orifice is made of a piece 
of palm, maranta, or other broad leaf, of which there is 
always one kind or another at hand. It is very dense and 
adhesive, having the consistence of paint, and a good 
deal consequently adheres to the calabashes. As each 
one is drained, it is wiped out by a turn or two of the 
