RUBBER PLANTING 135 



channels on opposite sides of the tree, and pricking 

 down these from top to bottom with transverse cuts 

 an inch apart. The cuts are made with a thin blade 

 about three-quarters of an inch wide and rounded at 

 the end. On alternate days two similar channels are 

 cut an inch to the right of the former ones and pricked 

 in the same manner. When the whole of the circum- 

 ference has been tapped in this way, the tree is rested 

 until the beginning of the second month from the 

 commencement of tapping, and the process is then 

 repeated, the same vertical channels being cut smooth 

 and re-pricked. In this way the larger trees are tapped 

 more frequently than the smaller ones. On a particular 

 acre bearing 147 trees the average number of tappings 

 was 75 in a year. The trees were just five years old 

 at the commencement of tapping, and ranged in cir- 

 cumference from 10 to 21 inches. All the trees were 

 tapped without exception, and the average yield for 

 twelve months was 18 ounces per tree, or 164 Ibs. per 

 acre. This is a remarkably high yield for 5 6-year-old 

 trees at an elevation of 1500 feet in Ceylon. At the 

 end of the year only a few of the smallest trees appeared 

 to have suffered any harm from the process. 



v 'fhe chief objections to this system are the large 

 amount of labour required, and the large proportion 

 of the rubber which is obtained in the form of scrap, 

 namely, nearly 50 per cent, of the total quantity. It 

 is however a method which may well be adopted in 

 tapping trees which it is ultimately intended to thin out 



