-8 THE WHOLE ART OF RUBBER-GROWING 



Castilloa rubber, which is the Castilloa now growing 

 in Ceylon. 



After the ground is cleared, all dead wood should 

 be burnt ; then follows the planting, made for pre- 

 ference direct from seed at least two years old and 

 which has undergone six or seven days' soaking in 

 tepid water to soften the tough outer coatings. In 

 about eighteen days the cotyledons make their 

 appearance. Thereafter growth, under normal con- 

 ditions, is rapid and continuous, and with a plentiful 

 falling of the weeds and undergrowth around the 

 young roots, as mulch and top-dressing, the trees 

 will have no difficulty in attaining during the first 

 year sufficient stature to ensure their arriving at the 

 tapping stage in the third year from planting. 



There should not be the slightest difficulty asso- 

 ciated with the tapping of this tree ; yet throughout 

 both Ceylon and Southern India planters unani- 

 mously agree that this difficulty does exist, and to 

 such purpose that any attempt to exploit Ceara on 

 the lines that the Hevea is exploited — viz. by bark 

 excision and herring-bone cuts — invariably results in 

 the death of the tree. This is not surprising when 

 we remember that the Manihot Glaziovii does not 

 possess a bark that permits excision without en- 

 dangering its very existence. It possesses a twin- 

 bark. The outer one, which might be termed the 

 " mother " of the tree, is a thin but tough papery 

 structure J-inch thick, while the other is merely a 

 kind of semi-transparent green bandage that keeps 

 the lactiferous vessels from swelling and bursting 

 when exposed to the air and sun after the stripping 



