THE INDIANS GAVE US RUBBER 
make our modem automobiles so comfortable to 
ride in. 
Rubber is made from the juice of a tree. There were 
trees growing in Africa and Asia from the juice of which 
it might have been made, but nobody had hit upon the 
idea. There were a number of trees in America from 
which rubber might be made, and many of them were 
being used for the purpose. 
The best of these trees was called the Hevea. It grew 
all through the Amazon valley. As people all about the 
world came to know about rubber and slowly find uses for 
it, a demand grew up, and the natives of the tropic Ameri¬ 
cas went more and more into the forests and came back 
with this tree gum. 
They cut gashes in these trees and caught the juice as 
it came out. This juice looked much like milk. They 
carried it to their camps. There a smoky fire was lighted. 
A broad paddle was dipped into the rubber milk; some of 
the milk stuck to the paddle. The paddle was then held 
in the smoke and turned about. The milk hardened. The 
paddle was again put into the milk and then into the 
smoke, and another layer hardened. In the end, a large 
piece of rubber grew on the paddle. It was cut loose and 
was ready for market. 
This was called wild rubber. It was not so good as that 
which is made by scientific methods since rubber has be¬ 
come a product of cultivated trees on plantations. This 
latter is called plantation rubber. In this generation it 
has come to dominate the rubber market. 
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