I 4 8 PARA RUBBER. 



carefully selected, and cultural details attended to, about 50 per 

 cent of the trees should be ready for tapping at the end of the 

 sixth year; but whether tapping should take place must of 

 course depend upon the price of labour, as only an average of 

 Ib. of dry rubber can be expected from each tree tapped at 

 that age. 



The following year practically every tree on the plantation 

 should be ready for tapping, and the average yield would be 

 about | Ib., and the following year I Ib. 



These figures are, of course, only very approximate, and much 

 below the returns obtained on many estates, both in Ceylon and 

 in the Malay Peninsula. 



Many pages might be filled with records of rubber obtained 

 by different tapping methods from trees of various ages in 

 different countries. 



Really astonishing amounts of dry rubber have been obtained 

 in a given year from trees of various ages ; for example : six- 

 year-old trees have yielded 2 Ibs., eleven-year-old trees 16 Ibs., 

 and twenty to twenty-five-year-old trees 25 Ibs. The reports 

 of such results, although most acceptable to the company pro- 

 moter, are distinctly misleading. In many cases the high yields 

 obtained have been from individual trees and by drastic tapping 

 methods. Alongside of these yields it would be instructive to 

 read the yield of such trees in subsequent years, and also the 

 yield of the trees growing under like conditions but not so 

 severely tapped. In view of the numerous factors which affect 

 the yield of Hevea trees it is almost impossible to even fairly 

 accurately estimate what the average yield of a plantation of 

 these trees will be during any particular year. This must of 

 necessity be largely affected by soil and climatic conditions, 

 methods of cultivation, tapping methods adopted, distance the 

 trees are planted apart, and the extent to which previous tappings 

 have been carried out. 



Providing these conditions be favourable, an average annual 

 yield of if Ib. of dry rubber per tree should be obtained from 

 the seventh till the twelfth year of its age. What the yield of 

 trees, tapped annually from the sixth till the twelfth year, will be 

 during the thirteenth and subsequent years it is too early to 

 state, but probably the yield will gradually increase annually till 

 2| Ibs. of rubber per tree are obtained. 



