l6 THE WHOLE ART OF RUBBER-GROWING 



rooted up to make way for a less shadowy and less 

 uncertain product. Those plantations that were 

 allowed to remain became the experimental ground 

 for every enthusiast who professed to have dis- 

 covered the one and only way to tap a rubber tree. 

 The Government men led off by scraping away a 

 little of the bark of their eleven-year-old trees where 

 these happened to have a circumference of not less 

 than 4 feet at a yard from the ground ! The tree was 

 then attacked with a J-inch chisel, by means of which 

 forty or more V-shaped incisions were made in the 

 inner bark. The milk was mostly allowed to dry 

 in tears on the trees after the manner pursued by the 

 Ceara seringueiros with regard to the Manihot 

 Glaziovii in North-East Brazil, whilst those portions 

 which failed to dry were caught in cups of coconut- 

 shells fastened to the trunk with clay. The driest 

 months of the year were always chosen for the 

 operation, which extended over a period of about 

 seventeen days, so that these magnificent trees 

 barely yielded each ij Ib. of dry rubber. Then the 

 scarring of the bark from the numerous incisions 

 must have somewhat alarmed the experts as to the 

 fate of the trees, since no further attempt was made 

 to tap them until the bark had healed. Thereafter 

 regular tappings every other year became the recog- 

 nised thing ! Commenting on these operations, in 

 a circular issued to the planters at this period, the 

 authorities venture (not too confidently) to recom- 

 mend an extension of plantations in the following 

 words : "A yield of over loj Ib. of first-class rubber 

 from a single tree in six years fully warrants a belief 



