6l2 RUBBER 



guns are dangerous weapons to play with, and many 

 regrettable accidents have occurred through their use. 



Hares have been accused of biting off the heads of 

 young rubber plants. Damage of this kind is usually 

 confined to nurseries, and may be prevented by enclosing 

 the nursery plots with wire netting. 



The bandicoot also is a troublesome pest. This huge 

 rat, with its powerful chisel-like teeth, will gnaw through 

 a rubber stump an inch or more in diameter. An example 

 of its work that came under my observation was a young 

 Hevea tree, measuring 4^ in. in circumference, which had 

 been completely severed at the base, the exposed parts 

 of the wood showing the characteristic marks of the 

 animal's teeth very clearly. The correspondent who sent 

 me this specimen (which was apparently one of many) 

 gave me the following account of the modus operandi of 

 the animal: "The bandicoot always scoops out a hole- 

 at one side of the rubber plant, and gnaws away the 

 tender root as deeply as possible that is, as far down the 

 root as he can get and he invariably gnaws the woody 

 part of the root. The plant then falls to the ground, 

 when the animal can get at the tender bark above." 

 From this account it would appear that the animal 

 deliberately fells the tree in order to feed upon the tender 

 bark that would otherwise be out of its reach. Danysz's 

 virus was tried without any visible result. 



On some plantations, where porcupines and bandicoots 

 are prevalent, it has been found necessary to protect each 

 individual tree by wrapping wire netting round the base 

 of the stem an expensive remedy. With rubber prices 

 at their present low level it is necessary to cut down 

 expenditure by every possible means, and some cheaper 

 method of protecting the rubber stems would be wel- 

 comed. Various patent mixtures have been tried without 

 success (some of them with positive harm). Possibly the 

 following extract from " The Yearbook of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture " (1909) may afford a 

 solution of the difficulty: " During the last year the lime- 

 and-sulphur wash, which for a number of years has been 

 employed to prevent damage to trees by the San Jose 

 scale, was tried with great success in several localities 



