ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
to encircle the tree. These collars served as channels, 
compelling the latex, as it exuded from cuts made in the 
tree, to flow into a small tin cup suspended at the lowest 
point of the collar. The incisions were never made lower 
than two or three feet from the ground. They must 
not penetrate deeper than the entire thickness of the 
bark of the tree, and they must on no account touch or 
wound the actual wood, or the tree would suffer greatly 
— even die. In some regions the incisions were made 
longitudinally, in others transversely. The operation was 
repeated by the seringueiro each time on every rubber 
tree as he went along the estrada, the latex flowing freely 
enough into the tin cup after each fresh incision had been 
made. 
The seringueiro thus tapped each tree on his way out 
along the estrada, which in some cases may be several 
miles long; in other cases, where rubber trees were 
plentiful, only a few hundred yards in length. On his 
return journey the seringueiro emptied each small tin cup, 
by that time filled with latex, into the large bucket which 
invariably accompanied him on his daily round. Rubber 
trees possess in a way at least one characteristic of cows. 
The more milk or latex one judiciously extracts from 
them, the more they give, up to a certain point. But, 
indeed, such a thing is known as exhausting a tree in a 
short time. A good seringueiro usually gives the trees a 
rest from the time they are in bloom until the fruit is 
mature. In some regions even a much longer respite is 
given to the trees, generally during the entire rainy season. 
In some localities, too, in order to let the latex flow more 
freely, a vertical incision is made above and meeting a 
horizontal one. At intervals oblique incisions are cut next 
to the vertical ones, but in Matto Grosso I never saw that 
complicated system of incisions adopted — only vertical 
parallel incisions at a distance of 0.25 centimetre (9% 
inches) being made there, and in rows one above another. 
6 
