GITTTA CULTIVATION. 41 



Unless the above facts are taken into account the cultiva- 

 tion of these trees would probably not be an easy matter, for as 

 each sort has such well defined limits when growing in a wild 

 state presumably they would not thrive out of those limits in 

 cultivation. It would appear to be more a matter of climate 

 than of soil in most cases, for at certain elevations the chances 

 are largely in favour of finding plants of the variety you would 

 expect to meet with, quite irrespective of the nature of the soil. 



Given the right species for the situation chosen, there would 

 seem to be no very great difficulty iu establishing plantations. 

 It would be necessary either to plant the young trees close 

 together or to plant them in partly cleared land, as for the 

 purposes of producing a supply of gum they must have tall, 

 straight, bi'anchless trunks. It is probable that the best plan 

 would be to clear only the undergrowth in a piece of forest laud, 

 then plant the gutta trees, and one, or at the most two clearings, 

 at intervals of say a year, would be all that would be required. 

 At the end of that time they would be able to take care of them- 

 selves. Fair sized, secondary jungle would probably be better 

 than heavy forest land to plant up in this way. In the case of 

 cleared land, to save planting very close, some quick, easy 

 growing tree, such as " dadap " {Erythrina indica), might be 

 planted in between the guttas to give the requisite amount of 

 shade to the young trees. 



One great obstacle in the way is the scarcity of seed. This 

 is only produced by old trees, and the trouble of collection is 

 therefore considerable. These large trees ai'e every year becom- 

 ing more scarce and, at any rate in Perak, the day is not far 

 distant when all of these seed bearing trees will have been 

 destroyed. In certain parts of the jungle there are still numbers 

 of young trees, but they would, as far as I have been able to 

 ascertain, not bear transplanting, and all attempts at properga- 

 ting guttas from cuttings have been failures. 



Up to the present time there would appear to be only one 

 method of obtaining the gutta percha from the trees, and that 

 is by felling and ringing the bark of the trunk, in the manner 

 practised by the the native collectors. This of course means the 

 destrviction of the trees when they have attained a certain size, 

 and the wasting of a large proportion of the total gum contained 

 in them. I have found that a tree of getah taban merah 

 measuring two feet in diameter, at six feet from the ground, and 

 about one hundred feet high, gave only 2 lbs. 5 ozs. of gutta. A 

 section of the trtmk of this tree shewed over one hundred 

 annular rings, and it was presumably over that number of years 

 old. It is quite possible, however, tliat these trees may have two 



