the latex is weighed, and when each collector has been credited
with the amount he has brought, it is dumped into huge vats.

The next step is to extract the particles of rubber from the latex
and to harden them. The jungle method of hardening rubber is to
dip a wooden paddle in the latex and smoke it over a fire of wood
and palm nuts.[Footnote: See picture, page 12.] It is a back-
breaking process to cover the paddle with layer after layer, until
a good-sized lump, usually called a "biscuit," is formed. The
plantation method is a quicker and cleaner one. Into the vats is
poured a small quantity of acid, which causes the rubber "cream"
to coagulate and come to the surface. The "coagulum," as it is
called, is like snow-white dough. It is removed from the vats and
run in sheets through machines which squeeze out the moisture and
imprint on them a criss-cross pattern to expose as large a surface
as possible to the air.

These sheets of rubber are then hung in smoke houses and smoked
from eight to fourteen days in much the same way that we smoke
hams and bacon. After being dried in this way they are pressed
into bales or packed in boxes ready for shipment.





CHAPTER 8

A LAST WORD