HEVEA BRASILIENSIS 43 



What, then, is all this quarrelling about? Can 

 anyone but the planter himself decide the question? 

 For instance, take the case of the planter who has 

 occasion hourly to curse the genius who per- 

 suaded him to place his trees 30 feet apart. 

 The land here lies on two hill slopes, the 

 openings of which provide perfect pockets for 

 every gust of wind which comes that way, with 

 the result that for every day during the prevalence 

 of the S.W. monsoons these poor trees are swept 

 by the wickedest little toy-cyclones imaginable, whilst 

 during the N.E. monsoons, through the vagaries of 

 the opening at the other end of the range, this un- 

 fortunate plantation is deprived of fully 25 per cent, 

 of its allotted rainfall, and the rubber only exists on 

 sufferance in consequence. 



I was able to convince my friend that in Brazil 

 the seringueiro is not troubled in this respect with 

 the torments of distances, for the Hevea brasiliensis 

 although found but two to ten to the acre, is yet 

 invariably so crowded on all sides by forest giants 

 and undergrowths that it is often very difficult to 

 obtain an adequate basal tapping of the tree. He has 

 accordingly decided to carry out my suggestions 

 first, to blot out the wind scourge by planting up 

 Darien Castilloa 20 deep across these openings, and 

 then to fill up the intervals of the old plantation 

 so that the trees are as nearly as possible 14 feet 

 by 10 feet in the plantation. Let me at once say 

 that to my mind this is the ideal distance at which 

 Hevea brasiliensis should stand on sloping wind- 

 swept ground. Where, however, the land is flat and 



