258 



soon the plantation is to be tapped. Trees planted 10 x lO 

 feet begin to crowd each other out at about six years. If the 

 plantation is to be tapped at this age, or earlier, this is a good 

 distance for planting. When the trees get older, the poorer and 

 weaker ones can be bled out." (Bulletin, Department of Agrietilture, 

 Jamaica, 1906, p. 98). 



Mr. Orde, who is managing the West India Rubber Syndicate, 

 in Tobago, has furnished the following information on young 

 Castilloas : 



The Castilloas on Louis d'Or estate are still young. Planting 

 was begun in the autumn of 1898, and the oldest trees are six 

 years or thereabouts. 



The larger number of the trees have been planted to stand 

 finally at a distance of 17 feet. Some fields are planted at 8^ 

 feet by 8i feet, others at 8i feet by 17 feet, in the hope that a 

 yield might be obtained from the cultivation while young, by 

 tapping the intermediate trees before they grew large enough to 

 necessitate being cut out. 



It has been found that a well-grown field, planted at 8A feet by 

 8A feet, cannot stand longer than about fave years without being 

 thinned out, as at that age the branches begin to interfere with 

 each other, and the tree tends to become thin and spindly. 



Experiments were made in tapping some of these young trees, 

 averaging five to six years old, in 1904. Large numbers of them 

 were tapped as severely as possible with chisel and mallet. The 

 latex was in some cases taken wet and washed before coagulation 

 and in others it was allowed to dry on the tree, and picked off 

 afterwards as scrap. 



There are some twenty to thirty trees on the estate, aged seven 

 years from seed, and experiments have also been made on these, 

 from which it appears that the yield increases fairly quickly as 

 the tree gets older. 



Six of these trees were tapped, not severely, in March 1904, 

 and gave 12} oz. dry rubber. The same trees were tapped again 

 in September and gave 10 oz., or nearly i lb per tree in the two 

 tappings. These trees, however, were rather above the average 

 in growth for their age. 



Trees planted at 8i feet by 8^ feet could not be left growing to 

 this size without injury to each other ; and if a field is planted 

 with the idea of getting rubber from the intermediate trees, as 

 soon as they get old enough to yield, and before it is necessary 

 to cut them out, it would seem that 8^ feet is too close a distance, 

 and that 12 feet would be about the most suitable distance. (West 

 India Bulletin, 1905, pp. 14O-141) 



Professor O.F.Cook,* says: "As yet there have been no 

 experiments yielding any definite information on the above point, 

 but the recent trend of opinion among planters seems to be dis- 

 tinctly in the direction of closer planting. There has been a 



Bulletin No. 4il, Bureau of Plant Industry, tJ. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



