etween layers of dried wild banana leaves and
slung up on deck in openwork crates so as to have plenty of air. By
this means seven thousand healthy little plants were soon growing in
England, and from there were carried to Ceylon and the East.

On the rubber plantations collecting juice from trees standing near
together and in open ground is an altogether different matter from
cutting a narrow path and forcing one's way through a South American
or African jungle. The bark of the trees is cut in herringbone
fashion. The collector simply slices a thin piece off the bark and at
once milk begins to ooze out.

On the great plantations of the East the rubber is collected chiefly
by Chinese and Indians. They are carefully taught just how to tap the
trees. They begin four or five feet from the ground, and work down,
cutting the thinnest possible slice at each visit. When they have
almost reached the ground, they begin on the opposite side of the
trunk; and by the time they have reached the ground on that side the
bark on the first side has renewed itself. The latex is strained and
mixed with some acid, usually acetic, in order to coagulate or thicken
it. It is then run between rollers, hung in a drying house, and
generally in a smokehouse.

The rubber arrives at the factory in bales or cases. First of all
it must be thoroughly washed in order to get rid of sand or bits of
leaves and wood. A machine called a "washer" does this work. It forces
the rubber between grooved rolls which break it up; and as this is
done under a spray of water, the rubber is much cleaner when it comes
out. Another machine makes it still cleaner and forms it into long
sheets about two feet wide.

Having thoroughly wet the rubber, the next step is to dry it
thoroughly. The old way was to hang it up for several weeks. The new
way is to cut it into strips, lay it upon steel trays, and place it
in a vacuum dryer. This is kept hot, and whatever moisture is in the
rubber is either evaporated or sucked out by a vacuum pump. It now
passes through another machine much like the washer, and is formed
into sheets. The square threads from which elastic webbing is made may
be cut from these sheets, though sometimes the sheet is wound on an
iron drum, vulcanized by being put into hot water, lightly varnished
with shellac to stiffen it, then wound on a wooden cylinder, and cut
into square threads. Boiling these in caustic soda removes the
shellac. To make round thr