134 



THE PARA RUBBER TREE 



latex tlian the older tree, but the amount of dry rubber 

 obtained from it was slightly less. 



After resting two months these two trees were again 

 tapped in April 1909, the tapping being done by the same 

 systems as in the first experiment ; the older tree was, 

 however, tapped to a height of 21 ft. on this occasion, 

 and the younger tree only to 6 ft. as before. Forty- 

 eight tappings were made in each case on alternate 

 days, covering a period of ninety-six days. The total 

 yield of dry rubber was 7' 1 oz. from the seven-year-old 

 tree and 66 oz. from the four-year-old tree. 



In these two series of tapping experiments the trees 

 were first tapped on alternate daj's for two months, then 

 allowed to rest for two months, and again tapped on 

 alternate days for three months. Combining the results 

 obtained it will be found that the seven-year-old tree 

 yielded ITS oz. and the four-year-old tree 10' 9 oz. of 

 dry rubber in seven months, during two of which no 

 tapping was performed. 



2. During 1909 four Para trees, four years old, were 

 tapped to a height of 6 ft. by different methods, viz. 

 herringbone, spiral, oblique cuts and V-cuts, in order 

 to determine the respective yields. They were tapped 

 every alternate day until the yields began to decrea'^e, 

 and the results obtained were as follows : 



The tree (No. 1) tapped by the herringbone method 

 furnished a large quantity of latex for some time, but the 

 flow ceased entirely after it had been tapped fifteen 

 times. The yield of diy rubber from the tree No. 2 

 tapped by the spiral method was small, but the yields 

 from trees Nos. 3 and 4 Mere very satisfactory, amounting 

 to 525 oz. and 6'20 oz. of dry rubber respectively during 

 a period of just under three months. 



3. In 1910 seven trees, six of which were five years 

 old and tlie other eiglit years old, were tapped thirty 



