38 THE WHOLE ART OF RUBBER-GROWING 



yield of rubber carries with it eloquent and positive 

 recommendations. 



The most complete and therefore most interest- 

 ing experiments in tapping- Hevea were those 

 carried out under the direction of Mr. Herbert 

 Wright at Heneratgoda in the early part of the 

 present century. Mr. Wright was at that period 

 curator at the Government Experimental Gardens. 

 He brought to his task at once an intense enthusiasm,, 

 a wide knowledge of tropical agriculture and an un- 

 tiring application to the difficult problems to be 

 solved. Here was a man who evidently felt that as 

 the Government had given the planter a priceless pos- 

 session in the alienated rubber tree, it was now the 

 duty of the authorities to show him how to make 

 the most of his prize. It may be said at once that 

 practically all these experiments were carried out 

 with no other object in view ; and if Mr. Wright and 

 his confreres, Dr. Willis and Mr. MacMillan, desire 

 to see the result of their labours they have only to 

 look at the enormous expansion of the industry since 

 1906, when, following the holding of the famous 

 Rubber Exhibition at Peradeniya, the knowledge 

 thus obtained from Heneratgoda was given freely to 

 the planting community of Ceylon and the Mid-East. 



Three important discoveries in regard to tapping 

 Hevea were made from the Heneratgoda experi- 

 ments, viz. (i) that high tapping was not necessary, 

 and that it was moreover conducive to the produc- 

 tion of non-coagulable latex ; (2) that tapping on 

 alternate days, with a maximum of 120 tappings, 

 gave best results ; (3) that bark renewal of excised 



