FICUS ELASTICA. 91 



and even grow into one another, so that bj tapping a root you 

 may be in reaUty tapping severaL After about twelve years a 

 good deal of the intervening jungle begins to get killed out, and 

 after twenty years it is difficult to find any but rubber trees, and 

 a few shrubs and grasses growing luiderneath. So in this way 

 a ruljber plantation when once well started practically clears its 

 own jungle. It is considered inadvisable to plant closer than 

 the distance given aliove, as it is believed if a tree were hilled its 

 comjianious might also die. I saw some instances where the 

 Forest Department had tried to kill out every other tree whei'e 

 they were planted too close, and although they had been dread- 

 fully tap^ied for three years in succession they looked quite as 

 healthy as the intervening ones, which had not been tapped at 

 all. T saw, in some of the eight year old plantations, that the 

 branches up the lines had met, and the canopy up the lines was 

 quite complete. At twelve years the canopy the other way was 

 complete, therefore completely covering the ground. 



The way the India-rubber tree is killed by the natives is 

 that they dig small holes under the large main roots of the trees, 

 and then cut them (piite or almost through, and let them prac- 

 tically bleed to death. In this way they get a great quantity 

 of rub1)er at the expense of the tree dying. 



I think that planters who have spare jungle could not do 

 much better than follow the lead of the Indian Forest Depart- 

 ment. The expense would l»e very small indeed, probably jungle 

 felling would only cost !!>3 per acre, and the seventeen mounds 

 per acre not over !^2. Then there would lie the niirseries, and a 

 few coolies occasionally just to keep the lines open and throw a 

 little earth on the roots of the young plants for about six years, 

 when they could take care of themselves. 



It is foun<l that at twelve years a tree will yield annually 1 

 pound of rubber; at fifteen, 2 pounds; at twenty, 3 pounds, and 

 it is believed that at one hundred years they yield 20 ])ounds per 

 annum. At this rate the first tapping would probably pay all 

 previous expenses. I believe that after I left the plantation 

 some experiments were made to see what the trees actually 

 yielded. I am writing to Mr. Cope land, who is in charge of the 

 plantation, for informatit>n. The Grovernment have planted 

 2,200 acres, and are puttii)g out more as cpiickly as possible. 



Coolie labour in Assam is very dear, the Forest Department 

 pay 32 cents per diem, and have diffic-ulty in getting men even at 

 that rate. The planters have to l)ring their labovn- from Central 

 India, and pay a very large sum for it. Second class coolies 



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