The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1884-11-27
Gathering Rubber in Brazil.

Writing about the production and
export Of rubber in Brazil, Consul
General Andrews says; "The rubber
tree requires growth of twenty to
twenty-five years before it begins to
produce, hence little or nothing has
been done for its propagation. The
milky sap which forms rubber is taken
from the wild tree, which grows
scattered through the forests of the
Amazon and many of its aftiuents. The
industry, being principally in the
hands of an uneducated and half-civil-
lied nomad population of Indian
mixture, is of a crude character. Moth
ing has been done to improve the
system of labor. A wasteful and ex-
haustive system of labor has been fol-
sequence is that millions of rubber
trees have been destroyed and many
others abandoned from premature and
excessive use. There are instances of
groves of trees which, by careful use,
and by not permitting them to be
tapped in the months of August and
September, in which they change their
leaves, have been yielding for thirty
years, and still are in good producing
condition; but the common practice is
so wasteful that many well-informed
people apprehend that unless some
remedy is applied, this rich resource
will before long suffer a serious and
perhaps fatal decline.
''The rubber tree thrives only on soil
which is annually overiowed to a
depth of three or more feet, and pre-
fers the lowest and most recent river
deposit. The rubber gatherers are
temporary squatters, and their dwell
ing is hut with low roof of palms,
beneath one end of which there is q
raised floor or framework of lath, one
or two yards from the ground, to
which the occupants retreat at high
water"
The following description of the
process of gathering rubber was writ
ten by Mr.. Franz Keller: Marrow
paths lead from the gatherer's but
through dense underwood to each
seperate tree, and as soon as the dry
season sets in he betakes himself with
holes in the bark. The milkwhite sap
Immediately begins to exude into
pieces of bamboo tied below and hav-
ing their ends in the little clay cups set
under the gashes to prevent its trick
ling down the stem. He travels thus
from tree to tree. On the return visit
he pours the contents of the bamboo
into a large earthen vessel provided
with straps, which he empties at home
into large turtle-sheu. Without de-
lay he sets to work to coagulate it with
smoke of palm nuts, and pours a little
of the milk evenly on light wooden
shovel, which he throws into the thick
smoke issuing from little narrow
chimney made by the neck of an earth
en- bottle. He moves the shovel sew
eral times to and fro with great
rapidity, when the milk is seen to con-
solidate and to take a grayish-yellow
tinge; 49,; , 80,
until at last the rubber on both sides of
the wood has reached thickness of
two or three centimeters. Cutting on
one side, he takes it off the shovel and
hangs it in the sun to dry. A good
workman can thus prepare five or six
pounds of solid rubber in an hour.
From its initial color of clear silver
gray it turns shortly into yellow, and
finally becomes the well-known dark
brown of the rubber, such as is export
ed. The more uniform, the denser and
freer of bubbles the whole mass is, the
higher the price it brings. Almost
double the value is obtained for the
first-rate article over that of the most
inferior quality, which is nothing but
the drops collected at the foot of the
trees"