96 



RUBBER GROWING IN PERAK. 



be done not mucli loss would follow plautiug iu uurseries and 

 then transplanting. The thing to avoid in this method is the 

 production of double stems near the ground, caused by the 

 original shoot dying out or being broken off. 



In the first few years a little judicious 2:)runing would 

 prevent this tendency to throw up more than one stem. In 

 other respects they clo ]iot require any pruning nor, after the 

 first few years, any attention at all, except a little cleaning with 

 a " parang." The trees are vigorous growers and have such 

 thick foliage that they woidd soon cover the gromid and 

 effectually keep out all weeds and scrub. 



Many methods have been suggested and tried for tapping 

 the trees, but what may be called the herring-bone method 

 appears to have advantages over the others. This is the way 

 the Ipoh trees are tapped by the wild tribes of Perak, and it is 

 also used by the Malays for tapping trees yielding bird-lime, 

 etc. The American rvibber collectors also adopt the same 

 method for tapping Castilloa. In 1888-9 the trees. Para and 

 Castilloa, at Kuala Kangsar, were tapped by herring-bone cuts 

 by Malays. 



On the 5th July a rubber tree iu the Museum grovmds was 

 tapped by a herring-bone incision in the bark of the trunk 

 al)out a quarter of an inch wide and reaching down to the wood. 

 The cuts were widened several times to, ultimately, about half an 

 inch. By the 7th October the cuts were closed up with a new 

 growth of bark. Three months is therefore sufficient for the 

 covering over of half inch wide cuts made right down to the 

 wood. The last places to heal over were those where the two 

 side cuts met the vertical one ; here, of course, the width of 

 exposed wood was considerably more than half an inch. 



I would suggest that the lateral cuts should not meet the 

 vertical ones at the same point, but that they should be made 

 in the way shewn at A in place of B. 



