CHAPTER IX, 

 COLLECTING THE LATEX. 



TAPPING. 



" TAPPING " is the name given to the process employed for 

 extracting the rubber-containing fluid, or latex, from rubber- 

 producing trees and plants. It consists of cutting the bark in 

 various ways sufficiently deep to penetrate to the latex-bearing 

 vessels. 



It is highly essential that this operation should be conducted 

 in a manner that will give the maximum quantity of latex, and 

 at the same time cause the minimum amount of damage to the 

 health of the plants operated on. If the wood of the tree be 

 damaged the upward flow of sap is checked, and consequently 

 also the growth of the tree. No hard-and-fast rule can be laid 

 down as to the exact age a tree should be before it can be safely 

 tapped, as, generally speaking, the size, and not the age, of the 

 tree indicates when it can be safely tapped. It has been proved 

 beyond doubt that tapping may be conducted with perfect safety 

 when a tree has produced a girth of from 20 inches to 2 feet at 

 3 feet from the ground. Where Para rubber trees have been 

 grown under satisfactory conditions, they have attained this size 

 in six or seven years from date of planting. 



I have seen trees in Ceylon quite large enough to be tapped 

 five years from the date that they were planted out. 



Rubber is obtainable from young plants and seedlings, but it 

 is inferior in quality to that produced by mature trees, as it 

 usually contains a larger percentage of resin ; and, moreover, 

 methods have not been yet discovered by which it can be 

 procured in sufficient quantity to make the collection of it a 

 remunerative undertaking. 



Although latex is produced by practically every portion of 

 the fundamental tissue of the Para rubber tree, the greatest 



