166 
THE METHODS OF TAPPING CULTIVATED CASTILLOA TREES 
IN TRINIDAD AND THE YIELD OF RUBBER THEREFROM. 
By Professor P. Carmopy, F.I.C., F.C.S., 
Director of Agriculture, Trinidad. 
The method most in favour in Trinidad and Tobago for the 
tapping of Castilloa trees requires no lengthy description. The 
implements used are a chisel with a specially thin cutting edge 
about 14 in. wide, and a wooden mallet. Every other method 
has been tried, including paring and puncturing. 
Cuts are made along the trunk about 12 in. apart vertically. 
Other series of cuts at about 4 in. to the right and left are 
made, and these are continued right round or half round the 
tree as high as can be reached on foot or on ladders. 
The chisel is pointed slightly upwards so that the bark on 
the upper edge of the cut may protrude slightly over the lower 
edge, and prevent the entrance of rain. Clean cuts should be 
made, and each cut should slope slightly downwards from the 
horizontal to facilitate the collection of the latex. The proper 
depth of the cut is easily ascertained after a short experience. 
It depends on the condition of the trees, and the length of 
the intervals between the tappings, whether the latex will flow 
from, or coagulate on, the cuts. If it coagulates on the cuts, 
the best course is to make a ball of the rubber direct from the 
tree, stretching the rubber as much as its strength will allow. 
This stretching appears to improve the rubber. 
The latex when plentiful may be collected in cups, or in any 
other convenient receptacles, and the rubber immediately 
separated from it in a centrifugal machine, or more slowly by 
creaming and setting in shallow trays with porous cloth 
bottoms. Coagulation may be hastened by the addition of 
diluted acetic or sulphuric acid, or an aqueous extract of the 
“moon’”’ vine (Ipomaa bona-nox). 
In Trinidad and Tobago Castilloa has not been grown as a 
separate cultivation. It was recommended some thirty years 
ago as a shade tree for cacao, and it has been tried for that 
purpose only over small areas. Under these conditions it has 
not given, and could not be expected to give, the best results; 
and the yield of rubber from our trees may be considerably 
less than that from trees grown under different conditions. 
The best results that have been obtained in Tobago from young 
trees tapped for the first time to a height of 20 ft. for half the 
girth of the tree are for an average of ten trees 10°8 oz., and for 
288 trees a little over 5 oz. fora single tapping, and 374 oz. for 
a second tapping four months later. 
