256 



six inches from the ground, so arranged as to catch the milk ; . . . . 

 incisions may now be made in the bark with the mallet and 

 chisel, commencing near the top of the cleared portion, a V-shaped 



cut is made in two strokes a second V-shaped incision 



should be made about a foot below the first and others at similar dist- 

 ances down to the gutter at the base of the tree. Another set of 

 incisions may then be made parallel to the first at about 10-12 inches 

 from them, and other vertical rows of cuts may be made if there be 

 sufficient room for them." The subsequent tapping was by inter- 

 calating fresh Vs. 



A little later, when Mr. J. Parkin was associated with Dr. Willis, 

 the Ceylon method was subjected to further experiment. The verti- 

 cal rows of Vs were one foot apart, and the first Vs in the rows also 

 one foot apart. The second incisions were made midway between 

 the first, and thus more or less six inches from them. The third 

 incisions were between the first and the second incisions in every 

 other of the now doubled interspaces, so that the number of 

 cuts was not increased. Thus was the tapping continued (vide 

 Willis, Circulars 12-14 of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, 

 1899, p. 133). One tree carried eight rows of these superposed 

 Vs ; others fewer according t*^ girth. The making of wounds in the 

 form of an X was tried and other variations of the principal scheme ; 

 but never was excision or reopening of the wound tried: and the con- 

 clusion was reached that " if a double cut be made, the V form is 

 the best (p. 123). A carpenter's chisel and a mallet were used: and to 

 planters it was recommended that the chisel be l-lM inches wide, 

 and wedge-shaped. 



It is most interesting to observe that the Malayan method had 

 not touched Ceylon yet ; and also that either place held to its own 

 course, though soon after this Singapore was advised to abandon 

 the method which Mr. Ridley had so successfully devised. This 

 was in 1898 when Mr. Wickham, returning west from a stay in 

 Polynesia, visited Singapore, and recommended the incision method 

 of tapping of the Amazons, so familiar to him [Annual Report, Botanic 

 Gardens, Singapore, for 1898, p. 6) ; but he did not carry his advice, 

 and there is no record of any use of the method resulting ; instead 

 on the other hand not long after the bias towards the herring- 

 bone excision method was asserted afresh (vide Agricultural Bulletin 

 of the Straits and F.M.S., ii., 1903, p. 45). Remarks published on 

 page 332 of the Bulletin of 1902, give one reason why. 



In 1896, one tree in the Waterfall Gardens, Penang, came under 

 tapping; and Mr. C. Curtis who tapped it, used a herring-bone 

 with three cuts on each side. There is a plate of this tree in the 

 Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits and F. M.S., for July, 1902, show- 

 ing it as it was in the year 1902; and, although not very distinct, 

 the reader may, therein observe the nature of the herring-bones 

 used ; several can be seen, the last nearly vertically above two others. 



