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twice climbed, once to cut it, and a second time, after the gum has 

 dried (which talces a day or two) to gather it. This is done by 

 pulling off the tear which gathers below the wound, which brings 

 away with it all the gum that has exuded, and these tears have 

 only to be moulded together to agglutinate into a ball. The 

 quantity that can thus be collected at one cutting does not exceed 

 8 to 10 lbs. Of course no mercy is shown to the trees, all of which 

 suffer severely ; and many are killed outright. The damage they 

 sustain is apparent in the large cankers, and buttresses rotted off, 

 owing to the bark being unable to heal over the frequent wounds 

 they have received all round. The foliage is wanting in luxuriance 

 and dried branches and roots lying about testify to the injury in 

 health that the tree has sustained. 



Mr. Mann specially insists on the following points being ob- 

 served : — 



"(I) Fresh cuts to be made only in February, March and 

 April, and the trees to have rest for two years between 

 each tapping. 

 "(2) The cuts to be at least l8 inches apart, to penetrate into 

 the the bark only, not into the wood, and to be made 

 with an instrument more suitable than the ones at 

 present used. Mr. Mann prefers the German timber 

 scoring knife. 

 "(3) As far as possible, the milk to be collected in a fluid 

 state in narrow-mouthed rattan baskets, and to be 

 brought to central manufactories. 

 "(4) Endeavours to be made to convert the milk into a solid 

 state by a process of slow drying similar to that prac- 

 tised in Para. 

 "(5) Those varieties of caoutchouc which dry naturally on 

 the tree to be collected with care, and to be picked so as 

 to get rid of all impurities. 

 Planting — In his report for 1884, Mr. Mann gives the following 

 particulars : — "The present area under cultivation is fully stocked 

 containing 12,511 trees; they have been planted at 25 feet apart 

 in the lines, which latter are lOO feet apart ; this is double the 

 number of trees that was planted on an acre at the commencement. 

 The oldest trees are about 30 to 40 feet in height, and a few from 

 45 to 50 feet, but this cannot be put down as the average growth 

 of Finis elastica in ten years, since half this time and longer, these 

 plantations were entirely experimental, and everything had to be 

 learned, as, for instance, the first trees were all raised from cuttings, 

 which mode of propagation has been given up, since the trees 

 raised from seed have proved much hardier and faster growing, 

 and as to the planting of rubber seedlings high up in the forks 

 of other trees, this also has almost entirely been given up, because 

 such trees in most instances, did not make more than a few leaves 

 in the year, and it would, as a matter of course, be out of the 

 question to plant rubber trees where they would take a century to 

 become large enough for tapping, when such trees can be grown 

 in a different way in one-fourth of the time. On the other hand. 



