324 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July i, 1906. 



Gardens, London, from Brazil, and are about 30 years old. 



The first set of four trees were tapped with large V cuts. 

 The yield was 1 1 pounds 5" ounces, in 50 tappings, extend- 

 ing over the period from June 29 to September 18, and rang- 

 ing from less than i ounce to 14 ounces in one day. Four 

 other trees were tapped with long spiral cuts, running round 

 but not completely encircling the trunk. These trees yielded 

 17 pounds 8;; ounces rubber in 65 tappings, extending from 

 June 16 to September 18, and ranging from under i ounce to 

 13I ounces in one day. That is an average oi i pounds rub- 

 ber per tree ill three month i. 



Mr. Herbert Wright, controller of the government experi- 

 ment stations, an authority on rubber in Ceylon, has latelj- 

 published an exhaustive work on rubber cultivation, entitled 

 " Hevea Brasiliensis or Para Rubber ", and he says the yield 

 in Ceylon varies "to a maximum of 25 pounds per tree in 

 twelve months' tapping." As he is the recognized author- 

 ity' in Ceylon the Kditor will allow me to give a few lines of 

 quotations here. Mr. Wright further says : 



In the Jlatale district there are estates where an average yield 

 of }i of a pound of dry rubber, per tree, from 5000 trees has beer, 

 obtained in one month's tapjiing. .\iiother estate has obtained an 

 average yield of jjj pounds dry rubber per tree, from 31 1 trees in 

 one year. The age of these trees varied from 10 to 15 years and 

 ' the trees varied in circumference from 30 to 70 inches, at a yard 

 from the ground. These trees were tapped on the full herring 

 bone system ; llie tapping area covered half the tree and extended 

 from the base to a height of 7 feet. The tapping was done very 

 carefully, the distance of 7 feet being worked through in 240 days 

 of continuous tapping. The yield from these particular trees will 

 probably be increased by a change in the method of toppiiig and 

 lapping instruments during the current year. 



Here then it is seen that even these good yields are ex- 

 pected to be surpassed when the more modern tapping 

 system is started (the italics are mine). 



These results were obtained in plantations of medium ele- 

 vation, while the results mentioned in the article in January 

 Indi.\ Rubhicr World were from estates in the low country, 

 practically at sea level, in the Southern province of Ceylon. 

 Of another estate in this Southern province, Wright says : 



An average of 2 pounds per tree from each of about 10.000 trees 

 is expected during the current year. There are on this estate 4 old 

 trees which have given 10 to 25 pounds of dry rubber, per tree in 

 twelve mouths ; the trees are perfectly healthy, have given a good 

 crop of sound seed, and are now ready for further tapping. 



Further exceptional yields were recorded some time ago 

 on the famous Culloden estate in the Ceylon low country, 

 where four large trees from 20 to 25 years of age (exact age 

 unknown) gave respectively 10 pounds, 18 pounds, 23 pounds, 

 and 25 pounds in 12 months. All these big yields are well 

 authenticated iti Cejdon. But it must be remembered that 

 these ver3' large yields are not over large acreages ; they are 

 regarded in Cejlon as very exceptional 5ields. It would be 

 quite impossible to take anj- of these as averages ; and there 

 are no estates where these big trees yielding immense quan- 

 tities of rubber are to be found in any number ; but these 

 results show what the Hevea tree can yield if properly tapped 

 and if there is labor available to do the tapping. On Kepiti- 

 galla estate, described in the January Indi.v Ribber World, 

 a yield of 3 pounds per tree was got from some 10.000 trees 

 planted through the cocoa, 8 to 15 years old, and tapped on 

 the V system, not on the spiral or herring bone, which have 

 accounted for the large yields recorded in the same article. 



Mr. Gordon Waldron in his letter to The India RuiiBEu 

 World says : "I had thought that planted rubber was not 

 likely to be felt in the markets for 25 years, and that with 

 the gradual exhaustion of the wild rubber field and the rise 

 of wages in the tropics, which is sure to come, a rubber 

 famine was surely approaching," The exhaustion of wild 

 rubber must not be counted on too freely by planters. Thcie 

 are large tracts in South .America as yet hardly touched, and 

 better methods of collecting and improved means of trans- 

 port will no doubt encourage and improve the South Ameri- 

 can output and tend to stop the exhaustion. Your cor- 

 respondent also seems to underestimate the extent of land 

 being planted up with rubber in Cej'lon, the Malay penin- 

 sula, southern India, Java, Borneo, etc. The exports of 

 plantation rubber from the Fast are doubling annually, and 

 in the words of Dr Willis, director of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Ceylon, "will in about 7 jears' time, ])robably 

 reach 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 pounds, and increase rapidly 

 after that, in fifteen years from now probablj- excetding the 

 exports of Brazil. " 



The method of tap])ing used for ilcvea may not lie the 

 correct one for economically obtaining the latex from the 

 Castilloa tree, since the laticiferous systems of these two 

 trees differ very greatly. Mr. Waldron states that in three 

 essentials the Ceylon tapjjing described differs from his 

 system: (i) frequency of tapping ; (2) reopening of cuts ; 

 (3) pricking the wounds. On these three conditions de- 

 pends tlie huge yield referred to. and it is probable that 

 such great j-ields can be obtained by no other tajiping sj-s- 

 tem yet practiced. But whether these systems can be 

 worked successfully on the Castilloa tree remains to be 

 seen, and extensive and careful experiments might well be 

 carried out. 



Tapping apparently does not haim the tree from the 

 amount of late.x drawn, but from the amount of cortex cut 

 away ; so that the finer the paring of bark removed, the 

 better. If a large amount of latex is extracted by the re- 

 moval of a very little bark, that sj'stem is economic, and in 

 the paring and pricking methods in the spiral, and espe- 

 cially in the herring bone system this is the case. Owing 

 to the difference in the laticiferous systems of Hevea and 

 Castilloa, I believe a single cut in the latter drains a much 

 larger area than in the Hevea, so that reparing or shaving 

 the lower edge of the cut might not prove suceesslul. The 

 incisive method of extracting latex, as in pricking the 

 wound, does not necessitate the removal of bark, and pro- 

 vided the spur tool used is handled carefully, so as not to 

 damage the cambium, this seems an economic method ; and 

 in experiments in Ceylon which have shown capital results 

 the pricker is used perhaps twice to each paring or shaving 

 cut, so that an abundant flow of latex is obtained with a 

 very slow removal of bark. An illustration accompanying 

 these notes was specially made to show the appearance of a 

 tree after it had been tapped on the paring and pricking 

 system. The specimen shown is growing in the Ceylon 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, is about 29 years old, about 80 feet 

 in height and girthing over 80 inches at 3 feet from the 

 ground. The tree was "resting" when the photograph 

 was taken. 



On page 80 of the March India Rubber World appears a 

 picture of "Overlapped Para Rubber Trees" which is a 

 striking illustration of how tiot to tap the Hevea tree, and 



