94 
“The plant may also be propagated by cuttings. The method 
employed in the botanic gardens has usually been to take cuttings 
further b: 
pencil, and is eut ied at both ends by oblique euts made just below 
leaf s ie The cuttings are planted in nurseries in wet earth. 
This method is somewhat precarious ; sometimes ey all i the 
Mieten: grow, at other times only a small proportion 
“The seedlings, stumps, or cuttings should be Buen. ant out 
ad e pee of cacao, and filled with qood soil. A little SERI 
e MEE The young plants require to be 
lightly shaded for a time until they Ad established, and probably 
for the first two or three years they will grow the better for a 
certain amount of shade, such as would be given by narrow belts 
of trees gogo through the plantation. These belts should be 
arranged to act as wind belts,as the Hevea is easily injured by 
wind. PE the time de irees are about three years old they will 
M wn up to a height of about 25 feet or 30 feet. and form 
their own shade. 
“Various distances apart have been tried in planting Hevea. 
The younger plantation at Henaratgoda Garden has the trees 
planted 12 feet apart. ‘Their average girth is now about 30 inches, 
will 
have been obtained by planting 8 or 10 feet apart each way. The 
s thus form their own shade and keep down weeds, and a 
process of natural selection of the best trees goes on, and the more 
weakly and dwarfed trees may be gradually thinned out in 
subsequent POM Another advantage of close planting is that the 
he 
grow up straight without forming many branches low down, 
and this very RS facilitates tapping. 
* Para rubber is a surface-feeding tree, and catch crops should 
not "ipis be grown between the trees, which require all the 
> ae that the soil can afford. 
nd 
dihet animals, and require careful protecti n for about Aaien 
hs, after which time they are elija tall enough to require 
but little further protection. 
“Weeding is also required for the first year or two, but 
Servum the trees form a dense shade, under which but p 
8 grow. 
“ The ANTE superficial growth of the roots renders 
manuring easy, and it would probably be found advantageous in 
poor or sandy so 
larg 
the ground. The girth of this largest tree was taken annually 
after this, with the following results :—It was 30 inches in 1883, 
