«>L> 



PARA RUBBER. 



that space for tabulating them is here given, although it must be 

 clearly understood that they are exceptional : — 



The ten old trees on Culloden were again tapped on the herring- 

 bone system from 1st November to the 8th December, 1905, and 

 gave an average of over 12 lb. of dry rubber per tree. A photo- 

 graph is, by permission of the Agents and Messrs. Capper & Sons, 

 Colombo, given elsewhere showing the trees from which these large 

 yields have been obtained. (See Plate 4, Series D.) 



The Elpitiya tree had a circumference of 46 inches ; the tapping 

 was commenced in October, 1904 ; the tree was rested in November, 

 tapped again in December, rested in January, 1905, and continuous- 

 ly tapped from February to June, 1905. Tapping was re-com- 

 menced in September, 1905. Plates 18 and 19, Series A, show two 

 of the trees in June, 1905, after they had given 14 and 16 lb. of 

 rubber respectively. 



Yield from Peradeniya Trees. 



The following are the details of the trees at Peradeniya, which 

 were tapped either on the spiral or V system. The letter P indicates 

 the days on which the spur knife was used. 



It will be noticed that the quantity of latex obtained by the use 

 of Bowman's and North way's spur knife was usually much greater 

 than that obtained by the paring knife ; this was to some extent due 

 to the fact that the innermost laticiferous tubes near the cambium 

 were penetrated by the points of the spur. 



It is, however, an open question whether the total yield from a 

 series of pricking and paring operations is in excess of that obtained 

 by the same number of parings, if a long enough interval of time is 

 allowed to elapse. The large yield resulting from the use of the spur 

 knife was followed by a poor flow after paring. 



