This picture was taken in a great rubber goods factory in Akron, Ohio. The raw rubber you see here has come from several places in the tropics. For rubber trees grow in hot countries only, such as Brazil, Mexico, and Africa. The rubber tree is a tall, straight tree, often times 60 feet high. Its bark looks like that of the beech, and it has graceful plumes for leaves. Between the bark and the wood is a gummy fluid called latex. It is not the sap of the tree. From latex crude rubber is made. On the upper Amazon the natives go into the jungles in October to gather rubber. They tap the tree in two ways. One is by cutting the bark in a wide gash that girdles the trunk in a spiral. A trough or a pail is set, and into this the latex (l´tks) flows from the gash. Each day the gash is extended. The other way is to tap the trees in much the same manner as sugar maples. On top of the latex so gathered a sort of cream rises. The native dips the paddle in this and holds it over a smudge of palm leaves or nuts until the latex dries. This plan he continues till he has a great ball of the size you see. The crude rubber is brought down the Amazon River in boats. Para (pä-rä´) is the chief city of the world in the export of raw rubber. In the East Indies there are many rubber plantations. There the latex is thickened by an acid, and the rubber is rolled into sheets. It is these sheets that you see on the truck. The United States imports yearly over 100,000,000 pounds of rubber. This is almost as much as Great Britain, Germany, and France combined import in the same time. Keystone ID: 22054 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.