( 220 ) 



371. At Darjeeling the same modes of sowing were adopted, 

 but the seeds germinated best on the garden soil and worst on the 

 charcoal. 



372. Further on, Mr. Mann recommends on the grounds of 

 economy alone that seedlings in cane baskets be started in the forks 

 of trees. This would reduce the cost of the plantation, he says 

 (including surveys, formation, conservation, roads, buildings, and 

 salaries), from Rs. 10 to Rs. 5 per acre. He holds, however, that 

 seedlings would succeed just as well if sown on the ground. 



373. I would here suggest that the Platycerum fern, which 

 abounds throughout our forests, be substituted for the cane baskets, 

 or, rather, that a little seed be sown in the cavity formed between 

 this plant and the tree to which it is attached. Beds of rich 

 vegetable mould might also be tried. 



Process of extracting and preparing " caoutchouc" in Burma Proper. 



374. Caoutchouc is obtained from the Ficus elastica either by 

 making incisions through the bark into the wood of the trunk, 

 branches, aerial roots, or roots, and the juice collected in hollow pen- 

 shaped bamboos driven into the lower end of the cut ; or the milk is 

 allowed to coalesce round the wound, and subsequently wound off 

 into a ball. The fluid that has been collected in bamboos, is 

 treated in two different ways. The inspissated milk is either 

 reduced to a solid mass by being poured in a thin layer on mats 

 (round which has been raised a clay moulding of about an inch 

 high) which, by exposure to the sun, soon dries, and becomes cohe- 

 rent and elastic ; the desired thickness being subsequently obtain- 

 ed by repeated additions of the liquid ; or consolidation is brought 

 about by boiling the fresh juice in an iron pan over a slow fire, 

 with its own bulk of water ; this prevents the coagulated caoutchouc 

 sticking to the sides or bottom of the vessel and becoming burnt. 

 In all three of the above methods, the coagulum on parting with 

 its aqueous portion gradually, by exposure to light and heat, 

 changes to a deep brown colour, and eventually becomes black, 

 although the fluid as first drawn is of the consistency of cream, and 

 of a yellowish white tint. 



375. No system is observed in the process of tapping ; but verti- 

 cal, horizontal, and oblique cuts indiscriminately are made with the 

 dah of the country all over the tree, varying in distance from one foot 

 to eighteen inches apart. This wasteful practice is not altogether 

 the result of ignorance on the part of the people, for they have a 

 very good idea of the season and age at which different parts of 

 the tree yield the most prolific flow of sap ; but since 1872, when 

 Mr. Henri and his party made the discovery already alluded to, the 



