28 



planters who have been repeatedly chopping off branches 

 of their old trees might make a note of this. 



In the same area there is a stump of an old tree now 

 four years old; for three years it never produced a single 

 leaf, but when I tapped it in 1906 a fair flow of latex 

 was obtained and a medium-quality biscuit made there- 

 from. Now, alas, its days appear to be num'bered. I 

 tapped the stem and roots, but not a drop of latex came 

 forth; the bark is almost dry, and soon the ants will 

 be in that stump. I imagine that it has been a stump 

 for nearly four years. On those estates where thinning- 

 out is being done and the stumps not uprooted, a few 

 years can therefore be reckoned on before decay sets in. 



New experiments have been commenced on about -six- 

 teen trees; the stems have been rung at two levels, but so 

 far no deaths have occurred, though the ringing was, ac- 

 cording to my information, done in October, 1907. In 

 fact, some of the trees were, at the time of my visit, 

 throwing out suckers and making attempts to heal the 

 cuts from above downwards. We shall look forward to 

 the publication of the results from these experiments by 

 the Director of the Peradeniya Gardens. 



I carefully inspected the trial trees which were tapped 

 by planters who, during my official work in Ceylon, re- 

 ceived their first lessons at Henaratgoda. Those planters 

 who are now in charge of some of the most important 

 estates in Malaya can certainly re-visit their training 

 ground and see the trees they tapped without offering any 

 apologies. Every tree has healed, and no scars remain. 

 If they do as well on the young trees with their much 

 thinner barks there will be nothing to grumble at. 



Manufacturers and Plantation Supplies. 



I have re-visited parts of Ceylon which at the time I 

 first saw them — nay, even last viewed them in 1906 — ^were 

 stretches of magnificent jungle; they are now a mass of 

 red soil and rocky slopes plentifully variegated with long, 

 slender whorled saplings of Hevea brasiliensis. Some 

 day, if moderate expectations are realised, there will be 

 shipped from these estates rubber at the rate of at least 

 50 tons per 1,000 acres now planted. The rubber from 

 the 350,000 acres in the East will, on the low basis of one 



