l8 THE WHOLE ART OF RUBBER-GROWING 



CHAPTER II. 

 Trees tbat Count Hevea Brasiliensls. 



A TANTALISING PUZZLE HEVEA RIVALS DISEASES 



MACHINERY - - INCONSISTENCIES - - REMARKABLE 

 GROWTHS HINTS TO PLANTERS. 



T T is a fallacy to suppose that you may " tap a tree 

 to death ". Doubtless where the tapping has 

 been carelessly performed, and the vital cambium 

 injured, its health may be affected ; but you cannot 

 " milk " a rubber tree to excess. The lactiferous 

 system is distributed in a region apart altogether 

 from the " nerves " and other life tissues that 

 depend first and last upon the flow of the sap, and 

 experts are beginning to recognise that it is on this 

 wonderfully constructed line of what might be 

 termed "lactic tubes" that permeate the mner 

 bark and root, and also the fruit and flowers and 

 leaves of the tree, that we shall have to fix our 

 attention in order to arrive at a solution of the 

 tantalising puzzle which the Hevea and others of its 

 order at the moment present to the botanist and 

 planter alike. 



Regarding it from a commercial point of view, 

 the Hevea does not occupy the pre-eminent position 



