Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-02-20
In NICARAGUA.
A VISIT TO AN INDIGO PLANTA-
TION.
How the Natural Dye Stuff is OBJ
tained-Cultivatio OF the Plant
Other Industries.
Especial Correspondence of the RnooRD-UsIos.l

Especial Correspondence of the REcoRD-UsIoN |
GRENADA (Nicaragua), Feb. s, 1889.
Among Nicaragua's industries, perhaps
the most prominent and promising is in
digo culture, thousand serones of that
valuable dye stuff being annually ex-
ported, and second in extent because in
volving more labor and danger) but by no
means secondary in Importance, is that of
that of caoutchouc, or India rubber.
Nicaraguan yuleros, or rubber-hunters,
are much like their class elsewhere, except
that these have peculiar process of re-
ducing the caoutchouc to marketable
commodity different from that practised in
Brazil and other countries. The term
yulero is essentially Central-American-
derived from ule, the native name of the
treas the word caoutchouc is South
American. India rubber is not, as many
suppose, the exuded gum of tree, but
appears in the form of sap, and is gathered
much after the manner of maple-tree sap
in Yankee-land
Having infinitely described its collection
and preparation in a previous letter from
Costa Rica), we viii not go into particu-
lars now, as the process is much the same
all over Central America and southern
Mexico. A full-grown rubber tree not
previously tapped will yield at least
twenty gallons of sap and will run itself
perfectly dry in days time.
At that season of year when the juices
begin to rise from the roots to the branches
of the trees, the ylIeros bestir themselves
and hire out" to the merchants, who or
ganize them In parties of thirty or forty,
and send them into the woods, equipped
for two or three months stay.
When party of yuleros find place in
the deep forest where rubber-trees are
plenty, they select favorable spot on the
bank of some lake or stream las great
deal of water is needed in the business)
and proceed to erect camp out of brush
and palms. This is their headquarters-
their temporary home in the depth of the
wilderness, practically cut off from the
rest of the world
They begin by distributing their buckets
at convenient distances. Then each yu-
lero selects his tree, cleans it of vines
and creepers, and-machate in hand, with
a coil of rope wound around his waist-he
climbs to the lower branches. Having
thrown one end of the rope over a con-
venient limb, he lets himself down by it,
cutting diagonal channels through the bark
of the tree in his descent, left and right,
the cuts meeting at right angles. In this,
great skill and expedition is required, for
the instant an incision is made, the "milk"
gushes forth in streams, in few moments
flowing at the rate of four gallons an
hour. At the bottom of the lowest cut,
not far from the ground, an iron spout,
six inches long, is driven into the tree,
through which the sap runs into bucket
placed to receive it.
Having thus tapped dozen trees, the
yulero has all he can attend to, emptying
the buckets, as they rapidly fill, into ten
gallon casks that are provided for the pur-
pose. In the evening these casks are
rolled into camp, and the milk strained
through sleeves, into barrels. In other
rubber-producing parts of the world, it is
then boiled but not so in Nicaragua. The |
natives reduce it to gum by adding to the
liquid the Juice of vine called achnna. |
which nature has provided In abundance
and which acts upon caoutchouc sap as
1t in a few moments. The yuleros cut
the stems of this singular vine into short
pieces soak it in water and then put
small lunches of it into pans With the
crude caoutchouc In the morning a
quantity Of dark-brown liquid, resembling
a weak solution of licoriee, is found on the
top of each pan, which is poured of, leav-
ing the rubber in solid cake of gum,-
Oh. J. -.
sap.
The gum cakes are then rolled under
heavy weights of wood, into long, fiat
strips, which are hung over poles to dry
These strips are facetiously called tor6lds
(pan-cakes) and at first ale white as vul-
canized rubber, but in few days become
black and hard as so many planks. The
"tortillas' are then piled up under cover
till the end of the season, when they are
shipped to market.
As to the yet more curious vegetable
substance called indigo-with which the
markets of the world are supplied from
India and Central America-since it was
spoken Of as a mineral in letters-patent is
sued in Germany, after it had been in gen.
eral use more than six hundred years
The indigo plant is half shrub, half vine,
growing two or three feet high, the color
ing principle being contained, not in the
pale-red flowers, but in the dull, BLUSH
green leaves, and it is brought out by its
oxidation as the leaves are dried, or is de-
veloped by submitting green leaves to
process of fermentation and oxidation.
The seeds are sown in April in light
soil, well narrowed il; and after few
showers the plants completely cover the
ground, looking like New Jersey sweet
potato patch more than anything else,
except that even the most hardy weed de-
clines to grow with indigo. Before the
plants have reached their full hight, the
leaves are cut, always early in the morn
ing, while the dew is upon them, and are
carried at once to the factory. Here they
are laid in a stone cistern, twenty feet
square and three or four feet deep. Heavy
weights are then placed upon them, and
HEAVIER beams placed across these, the OBJ
ject being to keep the leaves down when
they swell. Water is then admitted, and
fermentation soon commences. Ia the
course of ten or twelve hours, according to
the temperature and the condition of the
plants, the liquor is in great cSmmotion, rs
if boiling: frothy bubbles rise to the sur
face, and their color, first white, becomes
gray, blue and then deep purple, and
finally coppor-colored scnm covers the
entire surface. When the agitation sub
sides, the liquor is drawn of into lower
vat, the beams and weights are removed
from the upper one, the stepped plants are
taken out to be dried for fuel, and the vat
is prepared for another charge
Several men enter the lower cistern and
beat up the liquid with paddles till the
coloring matter begins to appear in small
atoms. This process requires an hour or
two, the appearance of precipitate, fne
as sand, leaving the wster clear above-in-
dicating favorable progress. The beating
is then discontinued, aud the vat is left a
few honrs for the indigo to subside. The
liquor is then run off fron, an upper vent
and the indigo left in the bottom is then
gathered up.
Sometimes lime is added. or various
gums, TO hasten the preoipitate, bur this
Injuries its marketable value. as il slightly
changes the color Of the indigo. Next
the pulpy precipitate is mixed with more
water in another eistern, and is then
passed, through great sieyes, into a boiler