88 PARA RUBBER. 



of economising the bark by such methods cannot be lightly 

 estimated, but it seems extremely doubtful whether they can 

 be profitably employed except when the price of rubber is 

 abnormally high. 



VARIOUS METHODS. 



Where the bark of trees is too corrugated or knotty for the 

 herring-bone or -spiral system to be employed, short oblique or 

 zigzag incisions can be made with advantage. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON TAPPING. 



Notwithstanding the numerous experiments conducted, 

 apparently with a view to determine the best tapping method, 

 few are of any real value to the practical planter, as the cost of 

 tapping, collecting, and preparing the rubber is not stated, nor 

 even the number of labourers employed in connection with these 

 experiments. It is of comparatively little utility to the planter to 

 learn that a given number of pounds of rubber have been obtained 

 by the adoption of a particular method of tapping and the 

 excision of so many square inches of bark. What is more im- 

 portant for him to know is the method by which he can collect 

 the maximum amount of rubber at a minimum cost, without 

 unduly injuring his trees. It is obviously impracticable to risk 

 the adoption of methods of tapping which entail the expenditure 

 of a larger sum for labour than the marketable value of the 

 rubber obtained. 



All persons interested in the cultivated rubber industry must 

 appreciate the scientific value of some of these experiments. It 

 may, of course, be argued that the planter could ascertain this 

 for himself, but he rarely has either time or labour available for 

 this purpose. 



At the present stage of the rubber planting industry it is 

 impossible to state which of the tapping systems in vogue is the 

 best, nor whether the best system has even been discovered. 



There is a vast difference of opinion as to whether some of 

 the first adopted tapping methods, such as the V, will not prove 

 more profitable than those more recently evolved, which necessi- 

 tate the excision of the whole of the bark from the tapping area. 

 The rapid destruction of the original bark which is so frequently 



