Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-03

cost me $50 in gold or at the rate of 81 800
a pound. l told my friends at Para that
must see rubber camp, and must make
some rubber myself in order 20 tell you
just how it is done. At my request they
hired a steam launch and fitted it out with
provisions for stay of two days. We had
four sailors, and we lived high We failed,
however. to fix the price of the launch be-
forahand and when the bill came H. it was
100000 refs, or a little more than slUo.
AS a result, 1 have my information. 1
have also my ounce of rubber. 1t is good
rubber, but unless l use it in raising the
figures on some other mans check, 1 doubt
whether | shall ever receive an adequate
return for my money.
A Ride on the Amazon.
We left in the evening and steamed all
night up the Amazon. Our hammocks
were sung to the roof of the boat and we
lay there in our pajamas. The air was de-
lightfully soft and just cool enough for
comfort. 1t was moonlight, and the equa-
torial heavens were dotted with stars.
Early the next morning We landed at the
house of big rubber planter. Our host re-
ceived us in his bare feet on his veranda,
and gave us some coffee and a bit of bread
for our breakfast. Later on he brought in
his wife and two daughters and introduced
them to us. The old woman was broad
as she was long, and the two girls showed
marked signs of negro blood, although they
Uere by no means bad looking.
The house was right on the banks of the
river. 1t was a rambling one-story struc-
ture. with a tiled roof surrounded by
porches. At one end was the store room
filled with supplies for the rubber employees
and on the veranda were piles of rubber
hams smoked and ready for the markets
When we went back we took $500 worth of
these hams along with us, towing them and
their owner in canoe behind our launch to
Para.
What n Rubber Tree Is
After breakfast we walked about through
the forest and watched the process of rub
Der gathering. First let me tell you just
how rubber tree looks. Many of you
think you have seen in our hothouses the
plants from which our rubber comes You
are mistaken. The rubber tree, with its
thick, glossy, green leaves which you have
seen, is that which produces the gutta
percha- 1t is nothing like the great tree
from which comes the best rubber of COM
MERGE
The real rubber tree is not unlike other
forest trees. If it was not pointed out to
you you might travel throughout the ANA
zon valley, and unless you saw the rubber
hunters at work you would not know what
1t was. 1t looks much like the English ash
and ii grows to height of more than sixty
feet.
Its bark is silver gray where 1t has not
become black by tapping The trunk of
the tree IS about big around as a mans
waist Where it has been tapped it often
sWells out at the base. so that it is much
larger. 1t blossoms in August being then
covered with little white flowers. 1t is a
nut tree, and in December and January
when the nuts are ripe, the shells which
contain them burst with a noise like a fire.
cracker, throwing the nuts to some dis
tance. There are so many nuts on each
tree that man could easily gather enough
in day to plant hundred acres Of land.
The trees can be easily grown In the
right soil, and they thrive without cultiva-
ton. 1t takes, however, from fifteen to
twenty years before they are old enough
Tor rubber. This is too long for a man to
wait on the Amazon, and at present the
trees which produce rubber are wild
How the Trees Are Tanned.
The rubber comes from the sap of this
tree. The tapping is done from the ground
from the roots to as high up as man can
reach, and sometimes still higher. The
trees are not bored with augers, as our
maple trees. nor are they SCARED like the
turpentine pine trees of our southern states
The tapping Is done with a tomahawk or
hatchet which has blade an inch wide
Inc rubber gatnerer makes a light cash in
the bark with this hatchet, lust deem
enough to go through without cutting the
wood. As he draws out the hatcher n milk
white fluid oozes out in drops The anid
Is as thin as milk. 1t Is much like the
juice of the milk weed. The taper now
taxes little cup of tin or clay about as
big as an after-dinner coffee cup and fits
IL INTO another cut which he makes below
the cash, so that the drops of milk run
down into 1t. He makes three or four
sashes In each tree, fitting each with its
cup, and then goes on to the next He con-
tnues his work until every tree allotted
TO MIN has been tapped
He does this early in the morning Union
the sap runs best. By noon he has gone
again from tree to tree and eInptied the
Hiiik from the cup into gourd-like bucket
Edch cup VIII nave tablespoonful or so
OF milk, and II for his mornings work he
gets gallon of fluid he has done well. The
mix flows slower and slower as the day
goes on. The air coagulates it and after
a Few hours the sap has stopped I'D the
wound
A rubber tree which has been tanned
looks like a mass of fostering sores. The
bark, which IS of a smooth and beautiful
silver gray where 1t has not been touched.
becomes SCARED and warty by the wounds
OF the Ratchet. AS the wounds close tears
OF yellow rubber sink down in the bark
about them. This comes out after the cup
mas been removed. 1t is carefully picked
on ana is sold as scrap or second grade
rubber, bringing from 20 to 80 per cent less
than the rubber gathered in the cups
which can be properly cured.
Rubber Paths and Rubber Roads.
neglected to say where the rubber trees
are found In the forests. There Is no such
thing as rubber grove or q rubber forest.
The trees do not grow in groups but they
are scattered among the other trees so
that you often have to go long distances
from rubber tree to rubber tree
The forests are divided up into paths of
from sixty to one hundred rubber trees
The paths lead In and out of the woods
now crossing streams and now going
through swamps, until all the trees on them
have been reached. Each path is allotted
to one man, who gashes the trees and
gathers the rubber upon it. The size of a
plantation is known by the number of
paths or roads 1t contains. There are some
plantations which contain more than a
thousand roads
1t was along such path as this that we
went from tree to tree gathering rubber
| gashed one of the best looking trees and
fastened the cup under it. Later on I
gashed others and in due time 1 gathered
my rubber and brought 1t back to the
house.
Smoking the Rubber.
The next process was the smoking To
produce the best rubber the sap must be
smoked the same day that it is gathered