When my uncles were rubber tappers, they were determined to tap as much as possible by getting up early in the morning. By four am they were already in the rubber garden and the latex would start flowing. By nine in the morning, latex would slow its flow and it would be time for my uncles to rest. The younger set would start collecting the latex from the cups. My aunties would also be with the children. Collecting latex from the cups was easier and during school days, the kids would be in school before 11.
My aunts would add formic acid to the latex and allow coagulation to take place. Soon they could step on the coagulated latex to make rubber sheets.
the next step was to dry the rubber sheets.
My uncles could harvest from than 12 rubber sheets each every day. On an average most rubber tappers could harvest 10 sheets per day. When it started to rain at about 8 a.m. their output per day would be reduced to slightly more than half.
They all had to work very hard against the merciless climate. On rainy days they faced short fall and had to have time out from rubber tapping. Then they would go fishing, help with the garden, animal rearing and general repairs in the house. This would also coincide with our year end holidays.
It was also good that the government did not control rubber tapping after the Rajah's decree of Rubber Tapping Stoppage (the Rajah stopped rubber tapping to control export volume) So during my uncles' time, rubber tapping was done as often as possible.
After the rubber sheets were smoked in our huge smoke house, a day of good rubber price would be fix to send the Smoked Ribbed Sheets up to Sibu for sale, at a good price.
Though the women worked hard, only the uncles were given shares of the sale. My grandma collected the management fees and my uncles had their share. This was how they family earned their living.
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