Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co.
How is Rubber Gathered by the Natives?
The trees are tapped very much like maple syrup trees. Only the juice is found between the outer bark and the wood. So these men make a cut in the tree through the bark, almost to the wood. A little cup is then fastened to the tree with a piece of soft clay to press the cup against it, and the juice runs into this cup. Sometimes they have from ten to thirty cups on one tree and the average yield of a tree is ten pounds of rubber a year.
Some two hours after the tapping is done the flow entirely ceases and the tree must be tapped anew to secure a fresh flow.
The film of rubber that forms on the inside of the cup and the bits of rubber remaining on the tree are collected and sold as coarse Para.
On the Banks of the Amazon
Courtesy of the B. F. Goodrich Co.
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| Gathering the Rubber Milk—Brazil | How the Rubber Milk Drips from the Gash in the Tree—Brazil |
| Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co. | |