RUBBER 691 



case kept very sharp, on the familiar herring-bone system, 

 arranging them in such a manner that they enter the 

 vertical channel alternately on each side. It is important 

 that no two cuts should meet the central channel at the 

 same point so as to form a V with the apex in the central 

 perpendicular channel. As a rule six of these cuts are 

 made, three on each side of the central channel and 

 making an angle of about 22^ with it, the cuts on each 

 side being a foot apart. At the next tapping these cuts 

 are left alone, and in young trees no attempt is made 

 to widen them, but six new cuts are made half-way 

 between the original ones. If paring is attempted it 

 usually meets with failure, as the bark in young trees 

 is so soft that it tears and strips under the knife, and a 

 bad wound is made which refuses to heal, and the death 

 of the tree may result owing to rot and boring insects. 

 On each occasion of tapping, usually in Coorg at intervals 

 of two to four days, six fresh cuts are put in half-way 

 between the old ones, and the spacing can be easily 

 arranged so that it takes at least two years to use up all 

 the bark on the area tapped. When this is done another 

 third section of the tree is stripped of its outer bark and 

 tapped in the same way, so that a four-year bark renewal 

 is obtained. 



It is of the .utmost importance that the tapping cuts 

 should be made in such a way that the cambium is not 

 wounded, and when this is done the narrow cuts heal up 

 with remarkable rapidity and ease, leaving a clean fresh 

 surface, which can be tapped again. It is of special 

 importance to avoid wounding the cambium in the case 

 of older trees ; it is our experience in Southern India that 

 in young trees even bad wounds and cuts made right 

 down to the wood heal up with remarkable rapidity, 

 especially if treated with some antiseptic material, such 

 as coal tar, Jodelite, or lime and sulphur, but that such 

 wounds when made on old trees do not heal readily, and 

 the soft wood inside is apt to decay and result in the 

 death of the trees before the bark can heal over the 

 wound. 



Another tapping system which has been used a great 

 deal in Hawaii has been experimented with in Southern 



