News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-07-24

The World Dependent on Wild Trees
Worked by Ignorant and Careless Ma
tiyes.
Writing about the production and ex-
port of rubber in Brazil, Consul-Gen-
eral 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
affiuents. The industry, being princi-
pally in the hands of an uleducated and
half-civilized nomad population of In
dian mixture, is of crude character.
Nothing has been done to improve the
system of labor.
A wasteful and exhaustive system has
been followed for half century, and the
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 overlooked to a depth
of three or more feet, and prefers the
lowest and most recent river deposit.
The rubber gatherers are temporary
squatters, and their usual dwelling is
hut with low roof of palms, beneath one
end of which there is a 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 pro-
cess of gathering rubber was written by
Mr.. Franz Keller: marrow paths lead
from the gatherer's hut through dense
underwood to each separate tree, and as
soon as the dry season sets in he be-
takes himself with his Ratchet to tho
trees to cut litGle holes in the bark. The
milk white systematically begins to ex-
ude into pieces of bamboo tied below and
having their ends in 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 bamboos
into a large earthen vessel, provided
with straps, which he empties at home |
into large turtle shell.
"Without delay he sets to work to |
coagulate it with smoke of palm nuts,
and pours a little of the milk evenly on |
q light wooden shovel, which he thrusts |
into the thick smoke issuing from a lit |
tie narrow chimney made by the neck of
an earthen bottle. He moves the shovel
several times to and fro with great
rapidity, when the milk is seen to con-
solidate and to take a grayish-yellow
inge.
"Thus he puts layer upon layer, I'M
Ill at last the rubber on both sides of
he wood has reached thickness of two
II three centimetres. Cutting it on one
,ide, he takes it off the shovel and hangs
t in the sun to dry. A good workman
AN thus prepare five or six pounds of
old rubber in an hour. From its I'M
ial color of clear silver gray it turns
lowly into a yellow, and finally be-
omes the well-known dark brown of the
ubber such as is exported, The more
lnif orm, the denser, and freer of bub-
lies the whole mass is, the higher price
brings. Almost double the value is
obtained for the frst.rate article over
hat of the most inferior quality, which
S nothing but the drops collected at the
cot of the trees"