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years, yielding yearly larger and larger crops, until they have no 

 more room for expansion, and they would then probably stifle the 

 cocoa, or any other catch crop growing underneath. I do not 

 purpose to venture upon any calculation beyond the sixth year, as 

 the figures would appear too outrageously large. Those already 

 given are beyond all dreams of avarice ; but they are nothing like 

 as large as the profit which is actually being obtained from those 

 estates (of which there are only a few) where the rubber is already 

 fit to tap, Mr. Hugh Bagot, of Arapolakande, writes to the 

 American Rubber World that he is getting £8o per annum per acre 

 profit— a nice income of what only cost, in the most, £20 to plant 

 and upkeep to the producing stage. Isolated trees have given 14 

 lb. or 15 lb. of rubber per tree ; but it is not fair to assume anything 

 like so large a yield on an estate with trees planted 15 ft, apart ; 

 but such yields show what the tree is capable of doing in Ceylon 

 when growing under such conditions as would allow it room to 

 expand to the height and size reached on the Amazon. 



The greatest boon of all is the wonderful way in which the tree 

 stands tapping without exhausting or imparing its productiveness. 

 Mr. P. J. Burgess, the great authority on rubber-planting in the 

 Malay States, who is now in the country, states that he has 

 repeatedly experimented to see what a tree would stand, and that 

 he has never been able to kill a tree by excessive tapping. 

 Photographs are before me now of some giant trees in Brazil, 

 which must have been tapped for fifty years, judging by the 

 appearance of the bark, which is scarred and gnarled for 30 ft. 

 upwards. We really do not yet know the quantity of rubber a tree 

 will give, and what it will stand ; so our present yields are 

 probably smaller than those to be obtained with mature experience. 

 No rubber tree, except Hevea brasilieiisis stands this usage. It 

 would appear, indeed, that it is the only rubber tree that can be 

 relied on not to succumb to tapping ; and Hevea not only thrives 

 in spite of tapping, but gets used to it, and it has been found that 

 an eight-year-old tree that has been tapped for two or three years 

 yields a great deal more rubber than a tree of similar age which 

 has not previously been tapped. Hence the present adage is : 

 Tap early to accustom your tree to yield its valuable milk, and it 

 will respond to your demands in ever-increasing quantities. 



THE REVERSE OF THE MEDAL. 

 What, then, is the reverse side of the medal, and wherein lie 

 the risks ? 



These are — 



(1) Possible disease. 



(2) A possible efficient substitute for rubber. 



(3) Over production. 



The first point is always possible, but very improbable, for the 

 tree, being deciduous (viz.. shedding its leaves annually), is not 

 likely to contract a permanent leaf disease. Against ants and 

 other boring animals and insects it has the great protection of 

 exuding its sticky juice as soon as an incision is made. In its 



