Rubber

 

Walked through a beautiful rubber plantation near Galle the other day.

In 1876, Henry Wickham gathered thousands of para rubber tree seeds from Brazil, and once germinated in Kew Gardens, the seedlings were then sent to Sri Lanka and other parts of the Brit Empire.

A half shell of coconut is used as the collection container for the latex that drips into it over a galvanised "spout" knocked into the bark - you can just see this in the pic. 'Tapping' normally takes place early in the morning, when the internal pressure of the tree is highest, and a good tapper can tap between 450 and 650 trees per day.

The trees will drip latex for about four hours, stopping when the latex coagulates naturally on the tapping cut, thus blocking the latex tubes in the bark.

SL is the world's 6th largest exporter sending products such as hoses, tubes, conveyer belts, auto parts and solid tyres, while latex based products include industrial household, medical and surgical gloves and rubber thread and general rubber products include door mats, rubber bands, sports goods, footwear and footwear components to Europe and America.

On the drive back into Galle I saw another London route master.



Milgro is a milk powder produced in NZ and widely sold here. The milk powder market is competitive in SL and Milgro offer a scratch card game with prizes of DVD players, Mobile phones and a Toyota Corolla. Must be good milk.....