Stories from Deli

Deli Planter by Kleian

How many trees does each coolie now tap per day?

Three hundred and fifty. Slightly less on the slopes. If they start here at half past five, they could be ready with the last tree by about half past nine. Then you give the signal for collection. The trees that were tapped first will have run out and the coolies can collect the cups. Make sure they don’t pick them up sooner, otherwise your trees will leak and the latex will fall to the ground.

Latex is that milk juice, isn’t it?

Yes, the rubber in a liquid state. This afternoon I’ll show you how to get that latex in solid form at the factory.

Is that tapping difficult?

Give it a try, here’s a knife. The intention is to cut the bark of the tree without touching the cambium.

You know that when you peel off a stick, a film remains around the wood. That’s the cambium.

When a bad tapper puts his knife too deep into the bark, he damages the membrane and that causes wounds. Those wounds later form wood overgrowth and if that gets too bad, you can throw such a tree out.

How many tappers do I have in this section now.

Four mandoers, each with 30 men;

What do the coolies do with the latex when they finish the collection?

Then it is about eleven o’clock. You receive each coolie separately to weigh their buckets one by one. The people you noted pour the latex into the tanker, which transports them further to the factory. You send the lists to the office in the afternoon, where the boss will check them and weaken your bones when your production has dropped.

Can I do something about it if the coolies don’t bring in enough?

Of course. You just have to make sure they cut deep enough. The deeper the more latex, the stone cells lie flat against the cambium.

So the issue is, if I understood correctly, if they cut a tenth of a millimeter too deep, we have wood wounds. That’s not allowed.

If they don’t tap deep enough, production will drop and that’s not allowed.

That’s the way it is. You will discover that it is not easy to keep the middle ground. The coolies are always prone to fall from one extreme to the other. If you qualify for wood wounds, you can be assured that tomorrow production will be down. And then you take the positions of the boss.

If you have a wonderful production at any given time, you can count on your department to be full of wood wounds. Yes, just sigh. You will sometimes think back to your exploitation. What do we do in the afternoon?

First of all, weeding. The area must look clean and tidy. Also ensure that the soil around the trees does not wash away, otherwise the roots will be exposed. And then disease control is a very important thing. I will give you a book, you should study it thoroughly. Tomorrow we will take a closer look at the various disease symptoms and then I will immediately tell you the cure. For the time being, you have to remember that you can kill the diseases in the Hevea-Brasiliensis in three groups. Jamoer-oepas, a fungus on the branches.

Brown inner bark and moldy rot are found in the bark of the trunk.

Fomus, that is a root fungus. There are of course many more symptoms, but I will teach you about them later. Not too much, otherwise you will be confused.

What time is it now, Reeder?

Half ten.

Mandur! To pick up.

I’m going to the factory now. You keep supervising here and later weigh in the latex. I have already arranged the afternoon work. Mandoer Soema is the oldest and knows the way things are going. Now when you get to the factory at two this afternoon, I’ll show you the preparation.

Until this afternoon then.

Bonjour Hartman.

So that was just the beginning. Hartman had taught me theoretical and practical lessons from half past five to half past nine. It had all seemed so simple. Well, tap, a cut in the bark and you only had the rubber to catch it. Yes, it seemed. But every profession requires knowledge and routine. You never graduated in rubber culture. Several experiments, in all directions, were necessary to increase production while reducing costs. Trial planting sister, trial planting zoo. Hartman juggled with technical terms that already made it difficult for me to pronounce them properly.

But it was interesting, very interesting.

I resolved to settle in as soon as possible. In the mining I should also have learned a hundred and one things. How smoothly and easily I worked later!

When Huug soon became Goenoeng-Ampat’s administrator, he would have to find a good worker in me and not a student. You can count on our cooperation, Rensema had said. I wanted to contribute mine too.

All things considered, I would have improved. My house was in the yard. A beautiful house, much better than in that remote reclamation. Such an after-house house does not get a brush of paint or whitewash. No people come there anyway, so…

The emplacement houses were constantly and carefully maintained. The garden in front of it is a pleasure garden. The view over the beautiful lawn, which extends to the administrator’s house, differs a lot from that of the dark forest and the black-burned plain.

I had given Mioen a raise of five guilders a month. He deserved it. Fortunately, he didn’t gamble. His salary was spent for better purposes. A neat white jacket and beautiful headscarf now gave him the appearance of a European servant. That left something to be desired in the beginning.

His cooking skills had also improved. With true contempt for death, I had swallowed his soup and pudding for a long time, until I advised him to turn his light on to the boys of his colleagues.

And with success, it was not always tasty, but with a little good will, it was still enjoyable. Today, the coffee even tasted different from the tea.

Before I went to the factory, I still had an hour to finish my front gallery to dress up nicely. It was still a mixed bag. That old rag could hang diagonally against the wall. Neat, neat. Well that painting still above that couch. Beautiful zoo. In this house I was short of furniture. It was also so much bigger, I had to buy something extra badly. Ten minutes to two.

I saw Mr. De Korte walking on the other side of the yard. He beckoned me. Where are you going? This is not the direction to your department, is it?

I was on my way to the factory. Mr. Hartman will show me the preparation this afternoon.

Otherwise there was still time, but anyway, just walk with me to the office. Your map is not very clear to me.

Ibrahim, give me Tuan Reeder’s map.

You’ve shaded this, is that the cut part?

Yes, so far, along the river.

And that dotted line?

Until there is still to be burned.

Still burnt? Has that not happened yet? Didn’t we agree that it would be ready for the first time?

I thought…

Well what, I thought, I thought… what good is that? We are already in the rainy season. Do you know what that is soesah? It costs at least three times as much.

It can be lit now, right? I needed my people for planting.

Oh, right, plants in the dry season and burn in the rain. That’s something different, isn’t it? I hope you will show more common sense on tap, Mr Reeder. If you work that way there… well, well, you just go to the factory, it’s nice.

Hartman was already looking forward to where I would be.

What are you late, have you overslept?

No, the boss took me to the office no, I’ve been on my ass.

About what?

Oh, about the exploitation. I had planted in the dry season, he said, and wanted to burn in the rain, it seems damn like I…

Ha, ha, ha, don’t get angry, you don’t know De Korte yet? He really doesn’t mean it. He told Rensema and me that you did an exceptionally good job. He is very satisfied with you.

Then why is he acting so weird?

Because it is his system to grumble. Behind your back, he speaks sympathetically and appreciably about you. There are also bosses who will flatter you in the face, but in the office with the thickest piece of charcoal they can find, paint your conduite. What do you think will benefit you more?

Oh, yes, you are right, of course, but if you are convinced for yourself that you have done your very best, it sounds so bad when they tell you to show more common sense on tap. It’s quite fun.

Don’t worry about it any further. Take it from me that De Korte has the right thing for you. And now, the factory.

Come and stand here, here you can see just about the whole lot. The latex is dumped in these bins. When it reaches this height, the water tap opens. With this instrument, the metrolac, we now measure whether we are at the right level. As soon as the latex has been sufficiently diluted, this tap will open and it will automatically flow to those aluminum containers.

What are those coolies doing there?

They mix the chemicals for coagulation. Five percent solution of formic acid.

What kind of stuff is this?

Sodium bisulfite for whitening the scrap, you will see that later. Here you have the lye bin where the acids are extracted again. In the meantime, those pieces of rubber have hardened somewhat due to the addition of the acetic acid and can pass through the rollers. This is the coarse roller and then through the next were, until the latter presses in the diamond figure and the letters of society.

The blocks of rubber have now become sheets and have to go to the drying house.

Is it ready for shipment?

Can you understand. Just walk along and I’ll show you what happens next.

Look, if they are now wind-dry, they are hung in the smokehouses, which prevents mold during the sea voyage. We don’t have time to check everything carefully. Later when you get the factory, we will cover everything in detail. Here is the box shop. There the sorting and packing room. What are those big rollers for?

For Compo preparation. The scrap and bark rubber are processed in this department. Let’s just stay here for a while. Hartman explained everything to me, but it was too much to remember. Everything was new to me too.

This is the engine room. Do you know motorcycles?

Not much. Is that necessary?

It’s a recommendation, so interest her. This is the “Winterthur” 75 HP. It drives the sheet and compo rollers, as well as the two pressure pumps and the dynamo for the light. Do you know how such a dynamo works?

No, I know next to nothing about those machines.

You will still have to inform yourself. Help me remember to give you some books later. I believe they’ve been played, shall we see?

Mandur! Pay attention to the smoke houses before you leave. Is Kardi done packing?

Not quite yet, two more boxes.

They have to be ready tonight, let them work overtime if necessary. Do not forget to put “Option” on the shipment for Hamburg. Come on, let’s go.

Hey Hartman, you shouldn’t blame me, but there’s still a lot I don’t understand.

Probably. It will take a few months before that you’ll have a little look at it.

How do you like the yard here, isn’t it?

Rare. Who made it that way?

Huug of course. After all, he opened Goenoeng-Ampat. You should come and have a look here. Have you ever seen such a selected corner?

We were behind Mr. De Korte’s house. We could see a deep ravine with overgrown slopes in its entirety. In the depths you could hear a river rustle, and between the branches glittered here and there the fast-flowing water. On the other side it rose steeply and the low thickets of the slopes turned into heavy forest. The setting sun cast its last rays over the beautiful green of the forest trees. This gave such a golden reverberation that it looked like the forest was burning in places. When I go home from the factory, I always stand here for a while and look, I love it again and again.

It’s also overwhelming. If a painter were to put it on a canvas like that, you would speak of an exaggeration.

Here comes the boss.

I’m back in my favorite spot, Hartman said. You still have a beautiful view from your house.

Maybe you will come and live here later, then you have the panorama to yourself, Mr. De Korte laughed. Would you like a cup of tea? Everything is just ready.

Yes please.

I’m always here at this time. You a cigarette, Mr Reeder? Please.

And do you already know what rustiness is?

Rustiness? No, I don’t believe Hartman showed me this.

Fortunately, it wouldn’t look too good for Mr. Hartman if he could show that. Never get to see it.

Do you use sugar and milk?

Little sugar please. Thank you.

Do you already know where you will be living, Mr De Korte?

On Darat. A new inspector’s house is being built. Your cousin is an administrator there, isn’t he?

Yes, Meerhuis, do you know him?

Well know, know, I’ve met him once. An old boss already, huh? Yes, it is not pleasant for the administrators there that I have been appointed as inspector. For that reason, however, I cannot thank you, you will understand that.

Of course, everyone for himself. I hope you will be successful over there.

Mr De Korte was a pleasant talker. Before we knew it it had gotten dark. How quickly darkness falls, doesn’t it?

What do you think Reeder, shall we go and collect your books? We followed the narrow path to Hartman’s house. Hey, there you have Koos and Giesen. How did it go ? Have you been hired red?

Of course. They were so happy as children that I wanted to join them. Monday I start. Forty guilders more than in my previous position.

Congratulations. Where will you sit?

On Ajer-Soedji.

Not bad. Close to Medan, that’s just the thing for you. As long as you can keep your big mouth shut. Let’s not stand here, come in.

Hey Hartman, if you want to give me those books right now, I’ll go home right away.

Won’t you stay here for dinner?

No, I’d rather go home. Mioen has dinner ready and I wanted to do some more work on my books.

Well, if you like. Look, here’s the latest book on tap and this is about disease control. Take a good look at them. Oh yes, well another book on machinery. Here you have the basics of technology.

Wait a minute, Reeder. We plan to have several photos taken of the company and one album of compile. We want to offer that to De Korte upon his departure as a reminder of Goenoeng-Ampat. Also one for Huug if he becomes boss here. Do you participate, it cannot cost much.

Of course I will participate, it is nice. Does that idea come from you?

No, Rensema suddenly came up with it. So that has been agreed?

You can also get my portrait to paste in, Giesen said.

Good, but colored if possible, Hartman replied.

Well, salute people.

Bonjour Reeder.