Wei Lin

While researching for the exhibition, I came across a few fun facts regarding Botanical Garden. For example, the tree from the 5-dollar note is a Tembusu Tree, a national tree which can be found in the Botanical Gardens. Arrows can be found on the steps in Botanical Garden, which were carved by prisoners of war as a form of subtle defiance etc.

Our group explored different possibilities before deciding on rubber trees. Before we decided on rubber trees, we were researching on spices grown in Botanical Garden. I was researching on nutmegs and I didn’t know that nutmegs played an important part in the economic development of Singapore! Nutmegs and other fruits were once grown along Orchard road, thus giving the road its name. Sculptures of nutmegs can be found outside ION Orchard and Orchard Central. I have came across these sculptures but I didn’t pay much attention to them at first, thinking that they were just normal seeds.

After that, we changed our direction and focused on rubber trees. Our exhibition,   Rubber trees: A Singapore journey tells the history of rubber trees, from origins of the trees to the end products that can be made from the rubber sap. My object was the Jebong knife, which I had some trouble trying to recreate as I can’t find a suitable material for the blade. In the end I made the knife using alumimium foil, chopstick and cardboard. During the showcase of the exhibition, we received some interesting feedbacks. One of which is to put stools or tables made from rubber trees at the exhibition. Overall, I feel that planning an exhibition involves a lot of work, from researching to the layout of the objects. It was hard to find a direction when we first started but after much trial and error, we arrived at our final idea and I am quite satisfied with the outcome of the exhibition. 🙂

Catalog entry

 

Hevea Brasiliensis were grown in Botanic Gardens in 1877. Henry Nicholas Ridley, who served as the first director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens from 1888 to 1911, advocated the cultivation of rubber trees due to its economic potential. In the 1890s, the rubber industry began to thrive after the decline of coffee plantations. A major contribution from Ridley towards the rubber industry is his discovery of a more efficient way of latex gathering without harming the tree in 1895. This method is known as the Herringbone tapping. A single tree can be tapped for almost 30 years with this method of tapping, resulting in an increased yield of latex in the long run. This method is favoured compared to the tapping method practiced in Brazil. In Brazil, tappers use axe to make deep gouges, which scars the bark and lowers latex yield over time.

 

The Jebong knife is an essential tool for the tappers. The quality of the knife affects the efficiency of the tappers. Tappers had to ensure that their knifes are sharp at all times to avoid injuring the trees. The rubber tree takes four to six years to mature before latex can be harvested. The reason for this is to make sure that the girth of the tree is larger than 18 inches where the bark are thick and wounding towards the trees can be greatly reduced. The trees that fulfill the criteria will be marked for tapping. Young trees are usually assigned to skilled tappers to minimise wounding to the trees. The plantations are supervised to ensure that no latex is spilled and that the incisions made are of an acceptable depth to minimise the loss of latex yield.

 

The trunk of the rubber tree consists of three layers, the bark, cambium and wood. The outermost layer is the bark and the wood is found in the center. A thin layer known as cambium is found between the bark and the wood. The cambium helps the tree to grow by creating wood and bark. When viewed under a microscope, lactiferous vessels can be found in the deepest layer of the bark. Latex is produced from these vessels. The cambium are beside the layer of vessels, thus tappers had to be careful not to damage the cambium to ensure the normal growth of the tree.

 

The rubber cup is also an important aspect of rubber tapping. After incisions are carved onto the trees, the sap flows down the gutter into a cup placed below. Earthenware cups are commonly used due to its low cost. However, these cups are heavy. Some plantations use glass cups, which are lighter and easy to clean. But they are fragile and much more costly. In addition, these cups are stolen easily. Plastic cups are light thus are easy to transport. However, it is harder to clean to the cups as the rubber tends to be stuck on the cups permanently. After the collection of the latex, further processing will be conducted on the rubber estate or at some large private facilities.

 

Bibliography

 

-Biology of Hevea Rubber

https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=I9RKUvSv7ccC&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=history+of+jebong+knife&source=bl&ots=6ycSK_gEya&sig=VCfiR2uQQUYSsEvZk3G5IajhQT0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBGoVChMIpLv4-PbxyAIVSs5jCh23PA4J#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20jebong%20knife&f=false

-Rubber and Rubber Planting

https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=Qmw3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA137&lpg=PA137&dq=half-herringbone+tapping+rubber&source=bl&ots=jziFzI142n&sig=t-d3PWYJlQHOsUD4uQ-5rgU5fww&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBmoVChMI1d787r7kyAIVxnGOCh0qVALq#v=onepage&q=half-herringbone%20tapping%20rubber&f=false

-Natural Rubber: Biology, Cultivation and Technology

https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=-rHXxqRjWuIC&pg=PA271&lpg=PA271&dq=who+invented+jebong+knife&source=bl&ots=ARQPZGEz7v&sig=yVIu3C6bTocRl3k9LZPd0Igqp5M&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAWoVChMIker2nOfxyAIVCD6ICh1Vewjh#v=onepage&q=who%20invented%20jebong%20knife&f=false

– http://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/dna/docs/5ef609398928cc605185152243b826f0.pdf

–http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/ad221e/ad221e06.htm

 

-From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy

https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=mnvBYQqpJbQC&pg=PA279&lpg=PA279&dq=extracting+rubber+tree+in+botanic+garden&source=bl&ots=Za6XifFotX&sig=i810Y55CipCAdx15UeSBdRnQLKk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEoQ6AEwB2oVChMIwqjKm7DGyAIViAWOCh2krQlO#v=onepage&q=extracting%20rubber%20tree%20in%20botanic%20garden&f=false

 

–http://bookdome.com/gardening/Rubber-Planting/Harvesting-Operations-Part-3.html#.VkiCa7Qhl5e

 

–http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_518_2004-12-28.html

 

-Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, From Angkor Wat to East Timor

https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=QKgraWbb7yoC&pg=PA1528&lpg=PA1528&dq=rubber+tapping+method+in+singapore&source=bl&ots=3XsXF94aVT&sig=ET1GEtezxMQK_tceoJ3MMPas6pY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFUQ6AEwDGoVChMIkaS0h73kyAIVSwuOCh127QUn#v=onepage&q=rubber%20tapping%20method%20in%20singapore&f=false

 

Jebong Knife

 

Jebong knife is commonly used for latex tapping. The knife consists of three parts, a blade, connecting arm and handle. It is made of steel with a plastic or wooden handle. The knife was used to make lateral incisions on the sides of a vertical channel on the bark of the rubber tree, forming a herringbone pattern. Henry Nicholas Ridley, the first scientific director of Singapore Botanic Gardens, discovered this method of tapping, which increases latex yield.

 

The blade is pushed along the tapping cut, shaving off a thin layer of bark. The cuts are done carefully to avoid injuring the trees. A gutter is placed at the lower end of the cut and the sap drips slowly into a cup placed below it. The collected latex will be treated with acetic acid to separate out the rubber. The trees are tapped in the early morning to ensure maximum yield of latex.

Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans)

Nutmegs were brought to Singapore by Sir Stanford Raffles for an experimental botanical garden in 1822.  It was indigenous to Indonesian Spice islands and became one of the major spice crop in Singapore due to its lucrative nature. However, in 1862, the cultivation of this spice were halted due to a disease outbreak.

Sculptures of nutmegs can be found along Orchard Road. This area was covered with pepper farms, nutmegs plantations and fruit orchards in the past, thus giving rise to its current name. There are 2 sculptures of nutmegs in Orchard Road, namely Nutmeg Grove (2009) near the main entrance of Orchard Central and Nutmeg & Mace (2009) outside of ION Orchard.

http://www.straitscanopy.com/2014/11/the-shade-of-a-nutmeg-tree-ion-singapore/