58 



of years ago, that the Buitenzorg experiments indicate the 

 highest yield of rubber per unit of bark excised, from the 

 half-herring-bone system, as against the full-herring-bone 

 and spiral systems. Dr. Tromp de Haas appeared in- 

 clined to think that the short V cut would be still better. 

 It certainly should give a higher yield per square metre 

 of bark than any other system because there is so little 

 bark cut away. I cannot, however, regard the V system 

 as being systematic; the lines of adjacent V's draw on 

 the same area after a very short time; they prevent regu- 

 lar paring from above downwards throughout the length 

 of the trunk, and the apex of each V is apt to turn up in 

 dry districts. I should not be surprised to see some plan- 

 ters giving it another trial. Such a development would 

 be a very natural reaction after the drastic methods adop- 

 ted on some estates. 



Importance of Latex to the Plants, 



It will interest all rubber growers to learn that nume- 

 rous experiments are being made to determine the im- 

 portance of latex to the plant, the effect of removing 

 large quantities from mature trees, and the origin of 

 caoutchouc. The difficulty will be to extract latex with- 

 out injuring the cells of the cortex; the removal of bark 

 in tapping operations has already been shown to affect 

 the natural foliar periodicity and so reduce the size of 

 the seed. What the effect of removing latex and nothing 

 more is, no one knows at the present time. Let us hope 

 that Dr. Tromp de Haas will on the occasion of his visit 

 to the London Rubber Exhibition in September next, be 

 able to inform us of the results of these and other experi- 

 rr:ents now in progress. 



^ill Gutta-Percha Cultivation Pay? 



Gutta-percha is obtained from the stems of Palaquium 

 species; small quantities are also being secured from the 

 leaves. The plants of this genus, though not indigenous 

 in Java, grow quite as rapidly as in Ceylon, and probably 

 as quickly as in their native areas. But at the best the 

 growth is miserably poor. I saw the trees which were 

 planted on the 8th February, 1884; many of them were 

 only about twenty-four inches in girth, though the giant 



