RUBBER PLANTING 133 



Finally, there is clear evidence that a better yield, 

 without any greater loss of bark, is obtained in the long 

 run by simple paring than by combined paring and 

 pricking. 



Pricking Methods under Trial. 



A method has been developed on an estate in the 

 Southern Province of Ceylon which seems to avoid 

 many of the drawbacks hitherto described. The trees 

 are tapped on a herring-bone system, and each rib of 

 the herring-bone is simply represented by four small 

 pricks made by a single insertion of a " serrated knife." 

 This pricker has square teeth a quarter of an inch wide, 

 with a similar interval between each tooth. They are 

 thus practically identical with what is known as Mac- 

 adam's comb pricker, except that the number of teeth 

 is only four. A shallow conducting channel is cut 

 vertically in the bark of the tree, and with a little 

 assistance from the tapper the latex flows into the 

 channel and down the tree. The original incisions, 

 covering an area 2 inches in breadth, are made at 

 vertical' intervals of a foot, and on each day following 

 a similar set of incisions is made at ^ to f inch below 

 the old ones. When the first area is completed after 

 24 days' tapping, the whole operation is repeated on the 

 opposite side of the tree. Subsequently similar figures 

 are intercalated between the old ones until only one 

 or two narrow strips of bark are left untapped. A 

 return is then made to the original area after a period 



