PARA RUBBER. 25 



fencing is imperative. The boundaries of newly-planted clearings 

 are often enclosed in rabbit wire netting, but where the rubber is 

 planted in established products, such as tea, cacao, coffee, &c, it is 

 usually sufficient to fence around each plant, either with netting or 

 sticks. When rabbit netting is used the plants are protected by a 

 circle of netting about six to nine inches from the plant to a height 

 of 3 or more feet. 



Draining. — It is erroneous to suppose that because Para rubber 

 is a forest cultivation draining is unnecessary. Draining is as neces- 

 sary for rubber trees as it is for any other product in order to en- 

 courage the free circulation of air, water, and food solutions through- 

 out the soil, and to check wash on steep hillsides. 



The distance of the drains from one another and their size must 

 depend upon the soil conditions. In swampy and boggy land, little 

 above the water-level, the drains should be as wide and deep as 

 possible, either between each row of trees or in exceptional cases 

 around individual trees. Several areas in the low-country of Ceylon, 

 consisting of bogs rich in organic matter, have been converted into 

 good rubber land by making drains two to three feet wide and three 

 to four feet deep, and heaping the earth in the middle to form a dry 

 soil on which the rubber plant can live for a couple of years. An 

 illustration is given elsewhere to show swampy land which by means 

 of good drainage has been converted into good rubber soil. 



On hillsides the drains need be only about one to one and a half 

 feet deep. They should be made at right angles to the slope in order 

 to check the formation of gorges. The distance of the drains from 

 one another will vary according to the slope and climatic conditions ; 

 on flat land a distance of 60 to 70 feet seems sufficient, whereas on 

 steep hillsides 20 to 30 feet is not too close. The illustration repro- 

 duced elsewhere, Plate 1, Series D, shows a young rubber plantation 

 established on very rocky land. 



Distance, Holing, and Planting. — It is a principle recognized in 

 forestry that close planting will give tall trees, and wide or open 

 planting thick trees. The object in planting Para rubber is to pro- 

 duce trees which will, as early as possible after the fourth or sixth 

 year, give a straight stem of at least ten to fifteen feet in height and 

 a circumference of 20 inches or more. Such trees can be tapped. 

 If the trees are very tall, but have a circumference of less than 20 

 inches, tapping operations are generally impossible owing to the 

 smallness of the available tapping area from 6 feet downwards. 

 And such trees 8 years old are known, the undesirable result being 

 the outcome of too close planting and not thinning-out or pruning 

 the trees at the proper time. In parts of Ceylon Para trees have 

 been planted 10 ' x 10/ 12'x 12/ 14' x 14/ 15' x 15/ and 20' x 20/ 

 It should be mentioned that trees in the Straits, planted 36' x 36', 

 showed contact of branches in nine years, and in Ceylon the branches 

 of trees planted forty feet apart have been known to meet in ten 

 years/ 



(4) 



