The process of heating a sulfur-rubber mixture became known as vulcanization, after the God of fire. At first, manufacturers used only wild rubber, which mostly came from the Amazon Valley of Brazil. At the request of the British government, an amateur botanist took 70,000 seeds of the Hevea-brasiliensis tree to England. About 2,500 of the seeds sprouted and were taken to Malaysia for replanting on a plantation. It grows in hot, moist climates like in Brazil and Peru.
Tappers start in the morning because the latex flows freely in the cool morning air.
They carry a gouge, a long, sharp knife with a curved blade, to cut narrow grooves in the bark of the tree. It slants diagonally downward about half way around the trunk. The latex oozes out of the cut and goes through the spout and into the cup. Each tree gives about a teacupful of latex, and a tapper usually gets about 350 trees a day. Latex spoils quickly and easily and must be processed into crude rubber soon after tapping.