Evening star., 1922-01-29
RUBBER PLANTATION WORKERS
MUST SHOW SPECIAL SKILL
United States Rubber Company Employs
10000 Persons in Producing Raw
=. Material on Sumatra Estate

Is given so many yards Of surface to
cover and the Taper Is assigned a
certain number Of trees-everything
on the stint basis.
This method Of allottins work has
proved very satisfactory. Most Of
the workers are anxious to get
through for the day as soon as pos
sible and there is an air OF hustle
in the early morning hours. All the
laborers are in the field as a rule by
$3.50 or O'Clock. and by 1880 the
heaviest part Of their work is done.
Because Of the tropical conditions
that prevail a regulation OF the Dutch
government in Sumatra requires that
an hours rest be granted the work
men after six hours work.
Tapping Work Done by Noon.
The tappers are through with their
tapping work by noontime. The tap
per's task" is usually $50 trees. BY
5 O'clock or $50 these trees have all
been tapped. and the work OF collect
ing the lateX from the cups begins.
Metal milk cans are used, and when
this work Is finished each worker
takes his cans to the collecting sheds
and the latex is weighed. That ends
the mornings work.
In the afternoon there are smaller
jobs to be attended to. such as weed
ing. cleaning utensils and sharpening
knives BY o'clock in the after
noon even the slowest workers have
completed their tasks.
The laborers follow the custom of
the region in eating but two meals a
day. Before starting to work. or
between jobs in the early morning.
they will grab a hasty snack. The
ing the rest period following the,
tapping work. The heavy meal is
taken at night The principal articles
Of food are rice, fresh and dried hsh
and bananas.
The language spoken is Malay. No
matter what the native tongue Of a
worker may be. he is able to UNDER
stand Malay also. for everything per-
tanning to his work is carried on
in that language. Among themselves
tongue This Is also true of the
Chinese and often the latter are $40"
in learning Malay:
Americans and Europeans going to
the plantations acquire a working
knowledge Of the MALAY tongue as
themselves understood in Malay. they
find themselves equipped to get ABOUT
easily among the natives. II IS
simple matter to learn enough IN
few months to answer the usual re-
Quirements.
Progress in Cultivation.
To come back to the rubber tree
itself 1T is worthy OF note tntl III Ihe
past decade with it's tremendous oe-
mand for crude rubber. notapie prog
ress has been made in finding out Ine
secrets of rubber tree cultivation. BY
extensive study many interesting ana
commercially important things nave
heen learned about planting. tapplhs'
rraftine and similar subjects.
Every one of the 100000 trees on
the plantation of the United states
Rubber Company is under constant
inspection. II one tree gives a
greater yield than another, a stua!
Is made of the causes. Moreover. by
process Of selection, the yielding
power Of the trees is being gradually
increased, the best-yielding trees be-
ing used for the propagation OF new
trees.
The trees yield an average Of one
third to one-half an ounce OF latex
each day. Half of this weight Is
rubber, making the annual yield OF
real rubber from each tree three to
four pounds.
One of the first requisites to sue
cessful manufacture of rubber is that
the crude rubber shall be uniform in
quality. One of the big obstacles
manufacturers in the United States
have had to meet has been the lack
of uniformity in the crude rubber
they buy in the open market.
To illustrate how easy a matter it
is to have a wide variance in the
quality of the rubber one needs look
no further than to the effect of