116 PLANTING IN UGANDA 



only to skilled men. Care should be taken to get 

 the angle of the sides of the V correct, and to 

 secure that they do not extend beyond the area 

 meant for them. From the point of the V, a 

 vertical channel a few inches long should be made, 

 and in this a small piece of tin placed so as to catch 

 the latex in its downward flow, and run it into the 

 cup placed underneath. The tin spout may 

 remain always in position. The vertical channel 

 is only a conducting channel, and is not again 

 opened. 



The opening cut made, it remains only to pare 

 the lower side of the diagonal cuts at regular 

 intervals. The work must be carefully watched. 

 Tapping must be deep enough, or no latex will be 

 obtained, but it must be only to the cambium, and 

 not into that most delicate tissue. The thickness 

 of the parings should be noticed, and the tappers 

 taught only to remove the merest shaving of bark 

 each time. In time, with paring the lower edge of 

 the cut, all the bark down to the ground or the cut 

 beneath it will be removed. The object of divid- 

 ing the tree into sections is to ensure that the entire 

 removal takes at least three years. If each section 

 can be made to last even longer than a year, so 



