2/0 



radicle of the embryo may be injured, After this treatment, 

 properly performed, the young plant appears above ground in two 

 or three weeks. The seedlings require no particular attention. 

 They grow rapidly, and may be finally planted out at distances 

 of twenty feet. A peculiarity which they share with their close 

 relative the mandioc, is the possession of large tubers on the 

 spreading roots." — (Journal of Botany, l88, p. 324.) 



"It can also be propagated by cuttings of about one foot in 

 length taken from the ends of strong shoots. In planting, each 

 cutting may be put in the ground to the depth of 6 inches. In 

 loose, sandy soil, or dry, gravelly wastes, if found to support any 

 kind of bush, plantations might be formed at little expense." — 

 {Cross.) 



Collecting the Rubber, and y/VW—" According to Cross (Report 

 p. 14) this is an operation of a very simple description. On com- 

 mencing work, the collector takes with him a stout knife and a 

 handful of twigs to serve as a broom. Arriving at a tree, any 

 loose stones or dust is swept from the ground around the base, 

 and some large leaves are laid down to receive the droppings of 

 milk which trickle down. Some do not go to the trouble of 

 sweeping the ground or laying down leaves, for which reason the 

 milk adheres to sand, dust, decayed leaves, and other impurities. 

 The outer surface of the bark of the trunk is pared or sliced off 

 to a height of four or five feet. The milk then exudes and runs 

 down in many tortuous courses, some of it ultimately falling on 

 the ground. After several days the juice becomes dry and solid, 

 and is then pulled off in strings and rolled up in balls or put into 

 bags in loose masses. Only a thin paring should be taken off, 

 just deep enough to reach the milk vessels ; but this is not always 

 attended to. Nearly every tree has been cut through the bark, 

 and a slice taken off the wood. Decay then proceeds rapidly, and 

 many of the trunks are hollow. In this condition the trees must 

 yield far less milk, and many no doubt are broken over by the 

 wind or wither away. Collecting is carried on during the dry 

 season only, when rain seldom falls." 



" In the Tropical Agriculturist for March, 1887, Mr. W. B. Lamont 

 furnished the following results of experiments carried on by him 

 in the districts of Henaratgoda and Mirigama :— "No satisfactory 

 result will follow any attempt to obtain produce before the tree 

 is at least four years old ; no system of cutting or piercing the 

 bark will give a satisfactory yield ; and it is only in the dry 

 season, when the tree is leafless, and the growth at a standstill, 

 that a satisfactory result can be obtained in the way of harvesting. 

 The plan of obtaining the rubber that my experiments led up to, 

 was, as soon as the leaves begin to fall, to remove the outer 

 bark in vertical strips of not more than two inches wide, and not 

 less than four inches apart. The tender inner bark thus exposed 

 to the sun breaks out in something like running sores, from which 

 the rubber slowly exudes and drips on the surface as fast as 

 discharged. In this process the strip of exposed bark is 

 destroyed, but a vigorous tree will close in the bared part in the 



