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yields, eventually cutting out the poor milkers that will probably 
be found among them. is manner seeds will be available 
with good milkers grown directly from cuttings from the best 
milkers on the plantation. 
e preliminary work carried out to distinguish between good 
and poor milkers may result in some simpler means being dis- 
covered by which either may be recognised. The investigation 
would be well worth undertaking from this point of view alone, 
as it would be of much benefit: by enabling poor milkers to be 
cut out in the process of thinning out. 
The matter, however, is one on which advice should be obtained 
from your botanists. We cannot profess to more than a general 
idea of the problem involved and the methods to be employed. 
We have, however, thought it worth while to bring the matter to 
your notice as we consider it to be of prime importance to the 
industry. 
It is to be regretted that research of this description was not 
undertaken years ago by the Government Agricultural Depart- 
ments in Ceylon or Malaya, as an ample supply of the best strain 
of seed would now have been available for planting purposes. 
It should also be noted that deterioration in latex yields from 
newly-planted areas as compared with older areas is not only 
possible but, regarded from some standpoints, even probable. 
Thus, it is found that the cinchona trees which yield the smallest 
proportion of alkaloids from their bark produce abundance of 
