200 TlMEHRI. 
A young tree a foot in diameter, felled, will yield 
a gallon. Hollow trees of all sizes, collectors report, 
yield far better than sound ones. If a tree is felled and left 
to be tapped the next day, it is necessary, the collectors 
assert, to ring the bark at the upper end of the trunk at 
once, and set a calabash to catch the milk that runs, or 
by the next morning the whole of the milk will have 
ascended to the branches, leaving the bark dry. If, 
however, this precaution be taken, the milk in the bark 
will be quite as abundant the next day. This practice is 
observed in all parts of the world where gutta or rubber 
is collected. The limbs are, as a rule, never tapped, as 
it is difficult, unless they stretch parallel with the ground, 
to catch the milk from them. When heavy rain falls 
while a tree is bleeding, the calabashes have to be 
collected at once, and the milk poured into the goobeys 
to prevent water getting mixed with it. The rest of the 
milk runs to waste. After a wet night it is useless to 
attempt to bleed, as the moist surface causes the milk to 
spread all over the bark, when of course it cannot be 
caught. The extremes of both the dry and wet seasons 
are alike unfavourable to collecting. During the latter 
the forest is flooded, and work is impossible; during the 
former the milk is not fluid enough to run freely, and in 
this condition the dry air causes it to coagulate over 
the cells as it first exudes, thereby effectually sealing 
them. I just now mentioned that the trees vary in their 
milk-giving qualities. The collectors class them because 
of this character as male and female, and only 
the latter they say yield well. For the collectors' 
purpose some are practically destitute of milk. I have 
said that a preliminary act to bleeding is to ascertain 
