16 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October 1, 1911. 



"CASTILLOA" CULTURE IN JAVA. 



SFA'EN years ago there were on the various plantations in Java 

 119,285 CasHHoa trees while at the same time there were 

 only 24,023 Hevea trees. Since that time, however, the planting 

 of Hcvca has increased with great rapidity until at the close of 

 1910 the Ilcvca trees in Java numbered 1,395,999. The planting 

 of Castilloa on the contrary has shown a number of fluctuations, 

 some years increasing and some decreasing while the number of 

 trees planted last year was only 24,872 and the total number of 

 Castilloa trees in Java at the close of 1910 was 388,862 or not 

 much more than one-third of the Hevea trees. 



Notwithstanding the obviously greater popularity of the Hevea, 

 owing to its lower percentage of resin and its greater yield under 

 favorable conditions, the Castilloa has some advantages which 

 the Java planters have come to recognize ; namely, it can be 

 grown at an altitude where the Hevea will not flourish, and it is 

 more suited for planting in conjunction with nt)ier growths as 

 it is practically self-pruning. While the Casliitoa tree can be 

 grown successfully at an altitude 

 that would be distinctly unfavor- 

 able to the growth of the Hevea it 

 does better and comes to a yield- 

 ing condition earlier when planted 

 at a lower altitude. 



In the general report fdr 1910 

 prepared by the Netherlands East 

 India Committee there is a very 

 interesting paper by Fr. Gierlings, 

 who has had an extensive experi- 

 ence in the planting of Castilloa 

 at Kediri, in Southern Java. He 

 finds that the culture of Castilloa is 

 easy where one has perfectly fresh 

 seed, seed older than three weeks 

 giving but unsatisfactory results. 

 He has noticed that in wet years 

 the Castilloa in Java blossoms 

 twice in a year, the first seed, 

 which ripens in August or Sep- 

 tember, giving but poor returns 

 for planting. The second seed, 

 which becomes ripe in December 

 or January gives much more satis- 

 factory results. He and neighbor- 

 ing planters have tried many ex- 

 periments in Castilloa planting 

 and have finally adopted the 

 plan of making their plantings 



12 feet apart in an easterly and westerly direction and 

 24 feet apart from north to south in closely grown 

 coffee gardens. In this way they get about 100 trees to 

 the acre. For the first two years the trees apart from 

 the coffee trees grow more rapidly, but after the Castilloa among 

 the coffee trees has risen above the coffee its growth is more 

 rapid than that of the trees in the open. 



While there are many complaints in other places in regard to 

 diseases and insect ravages the Castilloa of Java appears to be 

 practically free from these pests and even where the bark has 

 rotted because of careless tapping and considerable surface of 

 wood is exposed, the trees still appear to be fairly immune from 

 insects. 



Mr. Gierlings has devoted a great deal of time to experiments 

 in tapping. His latest method, tried last year, has given the best 

 results and it is well worthy of a brief description. His method 

 is as follows : 



With a knife like that shown in the illustration, and which is 

 made by the native blacksmiths, horizontal incisions are made 

 beginning about one foot from the ground and going around one- 



quarter of the circumference of the tree. These incisions are 

 made about three inches apart, being cut half an inch deep, or 

 down to the cambium, and are continued until there are 50 of 

 them, reaching to the height of 13 feet. The same operation is 

 repeated on the next quarter of the tree, beginning at the top and 

 working down, but a narrow strip of bark about one inch in width 

 is left between these two series of horizontal cuts. The accom- 

 panying diagram shows the general appearance of the tree after 

 the incisions are made. 



After a rest of three months the other half of the tree is 

 tapped in the same way and three months later the operation is 

 repeated on the first half of the tree, the incisions, however, being 

 made about half an inch below the original cuts. As the tree 

 is allowed to lie idle during the three months' flowering season,, 

 it is tapped only three times a year. This method of tapping 

 produces about eight ounces of dry rubber a year from trees 

 eight to nine years old. 



The latex exuding from these incisions is in the form of a 

 soft mass. With every tapper is a woman, whose duty it is to- 



CASTILLOA" PLANTED 1901, SHADING COFFEE. 



collect the latex. Her equipment consists of a large bamboo- 

 pot, a small bamboo pot, a spoon and some bamboo spatules. The 

 large pot is equipped witii a sharp point at the bottom so that it 

 can be stuck into the ground. Both this and the small bamboo 

 pot, which she carries with her, are partly filled with water. 

 She mounts a ladder to the uppermost incision and works her 

 way down the tree scraping the latex with the bamboo spatule 

 into the spoon and pouring it into the small pot, which when full 

 is emptied into the larger one. The contents of the larger pots 

 are collected by men and carried to the factory where the latex 

 is passed through a coarse sieve and then diluted with water, 

 and passed through a finer sieve into a washing vat, usually made 

 of galvanized iron and holding from 25 to 75 gallons. After the 

 liquid has settled the rubber globules come to the surface and 

 the remainder of the liquid is drained off through an outlet at 

 the bottom. Fresh water is then poured into the vat, the mixture 

 stirred and allowed to settle, and again drained off. This is 

 repeated until the latex looks pure, which generally requires three 

 or four w-ashings. The washing of the latex is usually completed 

 the day it is gathered. 



