42 THE WHOLE ART OF RUBBER-GROWING 



themselves, sinee they and they alone were re- 

 sponsible for the cultural policy associated with the 

 introduction of the rubber tree into the Mid-East. 

 But I am one of those who do not admit that there 

 is blame to lay at anybody's door, because I regard 

 the whole question of " close versus wide planting " 

 as a more or less manufactured bogey. On the one 

 hand we are warned against placing Para trees at 

 distances less than 30 feet each way. Wickham him- 

 self told the writer that there was danger where 

 Hevea was planted more than 40 to the acre, since at 

 these intervals fungoid and other disease pests have 

 less chance of contaminating, the roots have freer 

 play, and the branches more elbow-room. Well, I 

 have seen plantations set out on this scale, and I have 

 the proprietor's authority to say that he is in perfect 

 sympathy with me when I describe these trees as a 

 disgrace to their kind and as the greatest botanical 

 frauds that ever burdened a plantation. On the 

 other hand, not many miles further on I saw a 

 plantation of fifteen-year-old Para trees standing 

 8 feet by 10 feet, tall, straight, and well boled, the 

 most beautiful things the eye of a rubber man might 

 behold, and I was not at all surprised to learn from 

 the visiting agent that these trees gave over 6 lb. 

 of dry rubber per year on the quarter half-herring- 

 bone system of tapping ! Moreover, we have 

 clamorous evidence in the Heneratgoda giant, a 

 photograph of which appears as the frontispiece to 

 this book. This tree stands less than 8 feet from its 

 neighbours — all fine trees — in the plantation, and 

 yields nearly 100 lb. of dry rubber per year ! 



