HORTICULTURE. 479 



The trees are tajiped liy a row of V-shaped incisions made 3 or 4 in. apart and 

 beginning about B ft. from the ground. The size of the Vs are aljout 5 or 6 in. long 

 and the open end about 4 in. across. The latex is caught in a small round tin cup, 

 3 or 4 in. in diameter and about 4 in. deep, and is fixed to the tree ])y pressing the 

 thin edge of the cup into the bark. The tree is tapped every day until the base is 

 reached, when a second series of similar incisions is begun inside the first series, 

 commencing with the top row. A third, and sometimes a fourth series of inner Va 

 is made, the number depending upon the size of the first incision and the size and 

 age of the tree. Tapping is performed during the early morning and late in the 

 afternoon. 



The latex is cured when l)rought in from the fiehl by pouring into enameled iron 

 saucers about 1 ft. in diameter and 2 in. deep, and left until the rubber coagulates, 

 which usually happens by the following day. If desired it may be hastened by the 

 addition of a few droi)s of acetic acid; but rubber thus treated is rated at a lower 

 value in the market. The coagulated rubber is pressed out by rolling, after which it 

 is drained and usually submitted to a little artificial heat to hasten drying, and it is 

 then spread out to dry in a well aired room. 



Cacao flourishes in Ceylon at all elevations up to 3,000 ft. wherever soil and rainfall 

 are suitable. The 2 varieties of cacao, Forastero and Caracas, which were originally 

 distinct varieties, have become so intermingled by cross fertilization that practically 

 nothing but the hybrid type is now grown. The 2 most serious obstacles to cacao 

 cuiture in Ceylon are a f u r gus disease ( Xecfria ditissima) and an insect jjest ( Helopeltis ) . 

 The better equipped cacao plantations all have a well equipped drying house fitted 

 with artificial heating apparatus for drying the cacao during wet w"eather. The 

 drying room is maintained as nearly as possible at a temperature of 110° F. The 

 cacao dried in houses is usually inferior in color to that dried in the sun. The yield 

 per acre was found to vary between IJ to 4 cwt. 



The culture of cocoanuts is steadily increasing, and flourishes up to elevations of 

 nearly 2,000 ft. Specially good results were found to be obtained on one estate by 

 regularly burying all fallen leaves and husks of the nuts around the roots of the trees. 

 In addition, artificial manures were applied at fixed intervals. The trees were 

 planted 26 ft. apart, and the ripe nuts were collected once a month and stacked in 

 heaps in the open air for about a month in order to make them more easy to husk. 



Some notes are also given on the culture of cardamoms in Ceylon, and on the 

 Ceylon Botanical Department. The author recommends that the government intro- 

 duce and cultivate Para rubber in the Gold Coast. 



Rubber-tapping' experiments at the Botanic Gardens, Singapore {Queens- 

 land Agr. Jour., 1.S {190.J), No. S, pp. M9-271). — An account is given of tapping a 

 number of rubber trees in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, according to the Amazon 

 method. By this method the trees are tapped as high up as a man can reach. 

 A single cut is made with a small axe, the edge of which is an inch or an inch and a 

 half long. A cut is made each day for every 4 in. in diameter of the tree. Thus if 

 the tree is 12 in. in diameter 3 cuts will be made in a day. Every day a fresh cut is 

 made 4 fingers below the cuts of the previous day. 



The axe described was found more satisfactory in these experiments than tapping 

 with a chisel and mallet. "When the trees were lightly beaten with the mallet in the 

 vicinity of the cut there appeared to be a distinct increase in the flow of the latex. 

 Some data obtained in tapping 100 trees are tabulated which show that the amount 

 of latex obtained from 40 trees with 5 incisions each gave as much latex as 20 trees 

 with 10 incisions or 100 trees with 2 incisions, which shows that each cut gives 

 approximately the same amount and that the return, therefore, dejiends more on the 

 number of incisions than on the size of the tree. 



Sometimes trees which produced but little rubl^er when first tapped became very 



