RUBBER GROWING IN PERAK. 99 



majority of the cups will be more than half full, or occasioually 

 a few may be filled to the brim. But if the tree is much gnarled 

 from tapping, whether it grows in the rich sludge of the " gapo " 

 or dry land, many of the cuj)s will be found to contain only about 

 a tablespoonfuU of milk and, sometimes, hardly that. On the 

 following morning the operation is performed in the same way, 

 only that the cvits or gashes beneath which the cups are placed 

 are made from six to eight inches lower down the trunks than 

 those of the previous day. Thus each day brings the cups 

 gradually lower until the groimd is reached. The collector then 

 begins as high as he can reach, and descends as before, taking 

 care, however, to make his cuts in separate places from those 

 previously made. If the yield of milk from a tree is great, two 

 rows of cups are put on at once, the one as high as can be 

 reached and the other at the surface of the ground, and in the 

 course of working the upper row descending daily six or eight 

 inches, while the lower one ascends the same distance, both rows 

 in a few days come together. When the produce of milk 

 diminishes in long wrought trees, two or three cups are put on 

 various parts of the trunk, where the bark is thickest. Al- 

 though many of the trees of this class are large, the quantity of 

 milk obtained is surprisingly little. This state of things is not 

 the result of over- tapping, as some have suggested .... 

 The best milk yielding tree I examined had the marks of twelve 

 rows of cups which had been put on this season. The rows were 

 only six inches apart, and in each row there were six cups, so 

 that the total nimiber of cups which had been made within the 

 space of three months amounted to seventy -two." 



In the Kew Bulletin of 1893, page 159, the following note 

 occurs in relation to the yield of rubber : — 



"Dr. Trimeu to Royal Gardens, Kew. India rubber (21 llis.) from 

 Hevea hrazilien'iis (Pai'a) grown in Henoratgoda Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, 

 in 1892. 



'' The tree from which this was obtained is now fifteen years old, and 

 the stem has a circumference of 6 feet 5 inches at a yard above the 

 ground. It has now been tapped three times, and has given the 

 following yield : — 



In 1888 it gave 1 lb. 11 J ozs. 11 years olil. 

 „ 1890 „ 2 „ 10 „ 13 

 „ 1892 „ 2 „ 13 „ 15 



" Making a total of 7 pounds 2f ounces of dry rubber in five years. 



"The tree is in no respect the worse for this treatment; the rest in 

 alternate years permitting the scars on the trunk to become completely 

 healed. 



(Svjned) HENRY TRIMEN." 



