76 THE WHOLE ART OF RUBBER-GROWING 



CHAPTER VII. 

 Manihot Glaziovii. 



SOVEREIGNTY AS PLANTATION RUBBER PLANTING AND 



ENVIRONMENT TAPPING METHODS. 



" I "HE Manihot Glaziovii, strange as it may appear, 

 ■*■ really enjoys a much wider sovereignty as 

 plantation rubber than does the Hevea or Para 

 rubber tree, and it is therefore astonishing to 

 find existing throughout the whole of the Mid- 

 East a grounded prejudice against this valuable 

 and exceedingly profitable tree. Especially was 

 this the case among planters in Ceylon, where, 

 strange to say, notwithstanding the fact that Manihot 

 Glaziovii found its primary alienation in the island 

 as long ago as 1876, and hundreds of acres have 

 actually been laid down to its exploitation, there 

 existed an absence of the practical knowledge re- 

 quired in the cultivation of Ceara rubber generally. I 

 found this intensified in the case of an estate I visited 

 in the Kurunegalle district, which contained a very 

 large number of these trees, of a good age and 

 valuable as rubber producers. I was informed by 

 the superintendent that they were chiefly used for 

 firewood ! He admitted that they produced a 

 splendid rubber, but owing to the ignorance of the 



