154 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1883. 



cearA rubber in ckylon. 



The following reports ob the cuUivation of Rubber 

 trees in a lowcountry plantation, written at consider- 

 able intervals of time, will be «f interest to others 

 engaged in experiniints and we shall be glad to have 

 the reenlt of thrir observalions also. Latterlj' 

 there has been a despondent feeling ijrevalent as to 

 the success of the Ceara rubber as an investment 

 in Ceylon. The very f"ct that the trees run up so 

 rapidly from seed is offered .ns an argument against 

 expecting the sap to be worth much for rubber pur- 

 ■prses and the planters who have been longest engaged 

 iiithf' experiment are credited with the largest amount 

 of scepticism, alleg ng that the time taken to collect 

 are' appreciable quantity, puts the industry outside of 

 tbe ' paying and practical.' The sap it is said is too 

 thin and w-atery to coagulate and form useful bills 

 for industrial piiiposes, and this is due to the too 

 lapid growth of the trees. Such are the latest cur- 

 rent rumours, and they seem to be borne out by the 

 following reports from a reliable source :— 

 Ceara' Rubber on a LowcouNir.Y Plantation. 



[Fi'i-Mt Report.) 

 I have been experimenting with tl;e harvesting of 

 CearA rubber. It is possible" that the plan sketched 

 bv I>r. Trimen. of letting the sap run down the stem 

 and stripping the film of rubber, when it dried, might 

 be made to act. in the case of tolerably mature trees, 

 but I have fonnd it utterly impracticable \\ ith those 

 I have to deal with. At whatever height the in- 

 cision is made, the stream of sap reaches the ground, 

 and no sufficient accumulation of solid matter remains 

 to be strij.ped at any stage of drying. Again, Ifind 

 the branches more productive of sap than the stem, 

 and with the present plan of operations that I have 

 a.rrived at the produce is easier saved, and kept ijuite 

 free from foreign substances. After trying a great 

 many things with very little satisfaction to_ myself, 

 or in any degree, advancing the object in view, 

 while passing many possible systems in review, my 

 eye lighted on a small sheet of tea lead, in which 

 I had received a packet of the cheering leaf. _ ''This 

 is the very thing." I said, and I at ouce cut it into 

 pieces, five " inches by three. At one end I made two 

 holes through which! passed eighteen inches of IMadeira 

 Tine, and the appai-atns was complete. Each of the 

 pieces of lead is tied Hrmly to a branch, and the 

 lower portion turned up, so as to form a kind of 

 cup. Two cuts are then made in the bark, in the form 

 of a V. the point at which they meet being as near 

 as possible vertical to the centre of the cup and the 

 cuts should not extend beyond the perpendicular 

 of its borders. To tie each receptacle in position and 

 make the incisions, will take about one minute, and 

 they may be shifted every quarter of an hour, so 

 that 15 is about the number that one man can work 

 and in going over them the second, and each sub- 

 sequent, time, they can be emptied into a cup or basin, 

 and that again into a dinner plate or small tin tray, 

 placed on a level, and exposed to the sun, so that 

 the whole day's work may harden into one cake. 

 All tills is no doubt crude enough, and is likely 

 enough to be superseded by some more efficient plan 

 before there is much of this work done in the 

 colony, but in the meanthne it may save some 

 troub'le to such as have trees big enougli to stand 

 bleeding. I send a small sample collected in testing 

 the apparatus, but, as the trees are only 14 months 

 old. I only propose to l)lced two or three pretty freely, 

 with the " view of ascertaining if early tapping is in 

 jurious to the health of the plant, and if the yield 

 will be worth the labour of collecting it. So far I 

 can offer no opinion on either of those points, but 

 hope to be able to do so at no distant day. Till 

 that day, however, arrives, and tui-u the results out 



satisfactory, I will not extend the cultivation here. 



The sample first gathered was pronounced poor and 

 rather dirty, being mixed with a good deal of forcing 

 substances. 



(Second liepoH.) 



I did not expect a very favour.ible report on the 

 sample of rubber I sent in : it was collected from 

 trees probably too young to be tapped, and was the 

 result of experimental trials made at intervals during 

 many months. I believe that besides the true rubber 

 there is in the sap of ManUiot GlaziovU, another gum 

 of a different character, that will hare to be elimin- 

 ated to get the pure rubber. Fortunately the separa- 

 ationis not a difficult matter : if the sap be received 

 into a vessel of water the rubber settles and the gura 

 remains suspended ; if left to dry on tlie stem the 

 rubber strips off and leaves the gum att.\ched to the 

 surface where it remains a Idack line. Kvery CeariS 

 rubber tree has its own character as to quantity and 

 quality of sap from a given perforation, and some are 

 mere cumberers of the ground. 



A second sample sent was pronounced niuc'u better 

 and good offers were made : — the best offer was 2s 6d 

 per lb. for equally clean but less moist rubber (the sample 

 had too much water) if from 5 to 10 owt. could be 

 given to ship to tbe Continent of Europe. 

 (Third Hqm-l.) 



The Cear;i rubber is now again in full gi-owth 

 and the sap so thin, that half a gallon would hardly 

 yield an ounce of rubber ; it is now becoming pretty 

 clear that tapping should not I e done when the growth 

 is vigorous : the dead season is probably the proper 

 time for operating. Another trouble is. that the 

 quantity and quality of sap yielded by different trees 

 is very unequal : some wellgroivu trees yield nothing ; 

 others give a scanty yield, of a substanc > that dries 

 black, and is more gum than rubber. Finally, I hav« 

 not yet discovered any plan, by which sufficient pro- 

 duce can be collected to pay the necessary labour. 

 I find, however, that a series of small punctures 

 made with the point of a penknfe is much more effective 

 than gashes, and perhaps the best means of getting the 

 sap is in small tin vessels stuck to the stem with cobbler's 

 wax, or well cleaned coconut shells might do. It 

 appears pretty clear that unless a cooly collect half 

 a pound daily it will not p ly at, say, Rl'75. The 

 two coolies will cost 75 cents, then ther" is rent, 

 value of the land occupied, the cost of cultivation and 

 its share of the cost of an establishment, and all the 

 other odds and ends, that go to cost of production. 

 It may be that there are more rapid methods of 

 taking the rubber than any I have tried, it may be 

 that as the trees get older the sap may be more 

 abundant and more dense, but hitherto I do not see 

 my way. In former times, I have more than once 

 tried the banyan for rubber, but never succeeded in 

 finding any ; but I have now made out how to get it 

 more copiously than from the Ceara, and I really believe 

 of better quality, but ray experiments are only in 

 their infancy, and I cannot say much about the 

 result till they are more advanced^ 



Flyint; Fox. — A correspondent of the Toirn atid Cuunti-y 

 s:\vs that he has discovereil a sure preventative for the 

 depredations of the flying fox. His plan is as follows: — 

 '■ Just take a light wattle stick or bamboo ; fix a little 

 ijaint brush to the upper end in a trans\'erse diretion ; 

 then have a pot of coal tar. Dip a little of it and then 

 touch the leaves here and there about the tree where the 

 animals are likely to settle. The tar wiU not hurt the 

 tree. If some pyroligneous acid be added to the tar it will 

 he all the more "effective on account of the stronger smeU." 

 The tar and acid must be heated considerably to cause them 

 to combine. As this plan has the merit of cheapness and 

 simpUcity, we shall be glad to hear that many of our 

 readers have tried it next season. — Planter and Farmer. 



