July i, 1906.] 



THE INDIA RUBIbER WORLD 



323 



RUBBER TAPPING AND LARGE YIELDS IN CEYLON. 



By Ivor Rtluiiiii^ton (Colombo). 



^y-^IIE large yields of rubber produced by trees of /ftzen 

 I Brasiliensis on some Ceylon rubber estates have 



-*~ caused no little surprise among rubber planters in 

 other countries. Ceylon is ahead in the matter of 

 cultivated rubber, and in this island enormous strides have 

 l)een made during the last three years. The rubber tree, its 

 cultivation, the methods of tapping, and the preparation of 

 the raw article have been the subject of much experiment by 

 numbers of planters as well as b3' the government scientific 

 staff, so that it is not sur- 

 prising that rapid advance 

 has been made, that better 

 methods of curing have been 

 adopted, and more economi- 

 cal and scientific systems 

 of tapping, and procuring 

 larger yields of late.x 

 evolved. The turning out 

 of machine-washed crepe or 

 lace rubber was not contem- 

 plated three or four years 

 ago, when drying took a 

 matter of some weeks. In 

 tlie same way, a few years 

 back, it was considered that 

 the " Para " tree could only 

 bt tapped during certain 

 parts of the year, never 

 when it was in the almost 

 leafless or "wintering" 

 stage, and wanted long pe- 

 riods of rest between tap- 

 ping operations, while the 

 yield of drj- rubber obtained 

 was small. Todaj' very dif- 

 ferent ideas hold among the 

 majority of planters. Trees 

 are not given such long rests 

 as formerly, but tapping pro- 

 ceeds throughout the year ; 

 and larger yields are ol) 

 tained in comparison with 

 the amount of damage done 

 to the tree .T-in«i_ lArrtNo ut- n 



The increased yields that IPhotograph by M 



have been obtained in Ceylon and the really marvelous yields 

 obtained from some Hevea trees have occasioned no little 

 surprise in Ceylon ; it is therefore not strange that these 

 results should be received with hesitation by planters of 

 rubber in less favored parts of the world. Mr. Gordon 

 Waldron, a rubber planter of experience in Central America, 

 has thus challenged the truth of statements made by the 

 present writer in The India Rubber World of January 

 last. Mr. Waldron remarks [Indi.v Rubber World March 

 I, page I So] that the statements referred to " are so wonder- 

 ful and so important to the planting and manufacturing 

 interests of the world as to be spurned or at ouce verified, 



even at great expense." I will do my best to convince Mr. 

 Waldron and other possibly justified unbelievers, of the 

 truth of those statements. But Mr. Waldron must first 

 recollect that these statements come from Ceylon and not 

 from "America, where "tall stories" are proverbial and 

 everything remarkable is as a matter of course taken cum 

 grano salts ! 



Ceylon estates are managed on very business like lines, 

 and planters through years of tea planting, are accustomed 



to keeping very careful, ac- 

 curate details of their plants, 

 crops, and produce. In the 

 case under reference a new 

 system of tapping rubber 

 trees was being worked out 

 which took some years to 

 evolve, and consequently all 

 details were very strictly 

 kept so as to be available for 

 reference at any time. A 

 ])lanter in his estate report 

 keeps account of what trees 

 are tapped and the yield per 

 day, and these results can 

 always be verified by the 

 visiting agent, and for the 

 account in the January India 

 Rubber World the writer 

 was privileged to go through 

 the estate report very care- 

 fully and make certain ex- 

 tracts. The results obtained 

 on that estate and others to 

 be mentioned below, have 

 been examined into by the 

 government scientific staff 

 members and have been ac- 

 cepted as correct. 



But it is not only on com- 

 pany or private owned plan- 

 tations that these large yields 

 of rubber have been obtained. 

 Astonishing results have 

 t»tA bHAsiLiENSis-" ^leen procured' in the Ceylon 



r. EtheriTijjciou ] government's Roj'al Botanic 



flardens, at Peradeniya and Henaratgoda. These yields are 

 vouched for by the Peradeniya scientific staff", men of the 

 highest standing upon whose word not the slightest shadow 

 of a doubt can be cast. The trees stand in the public garden 

 always available for the public to see, and the daily yields 

 when tapping is being done are mo.st accurately kept. The 

 yields of four of these trees are given below, and Mr. Gordon 

 Waldron or any one else, can refer for further confirmation 

 to the director of the botanic gardens or the controller of the 

 experiment station, who personally carried out the work. 

 These trees were "Brazil bred"; that is, they are some of 

 the original plants imported into Ceylon via Kew Botanic 



