Euphorbiaceae (Rubber Tree)

Rubber tree tapping was my early age familiar activities. My mother took me to the grandpa's rubber garden and early in the morning about 5.30am, she would tap the tree bark and let the white latex flowed into a small bowl. I would help to collect into a pail at 9.00am and took to the small hut and mixed with formic acid to solidify the latex in the flat aluminium containers. As the rubber hardened, we then fed into a hand turning mechanical rollers and made into hard flat sheets. That was what I enjoyed playing. These sheets were then hanged in a smoke room where they were dried and blackened before selling to the traders. Smoking was to prevent damage from mould. We did not know what the rubber was used for then.
Today, we all know the usefulness of rubber. Synthetic rubber at one time almost bankrupted the small rubber holders. But with the increase of petroleum price, which is the main ingredient of synthetic rubber, natural rubber is again in great demand.

These old rubber trees are next door to my farm in Jakar where the other day I got lost.