b 
not yet appeared. among our exports. Since " pw been ascertained 
that the quality is excellent, cultivators hav n endeavouring 
to discover a means by which the milk can X buda ed at a co 
vetare low to give a return, but without, as dn ee 
sults e removal of the outer separable has bee 
ehjouted to on the ground that the bark formed in its stead is of 
a different character, very hard and inseparable from the green 
layer a sec cond time. Instruments have therefore been devised 
invention avoids all cutting, being a double spur-like wheel Mion 
sharp but guarded points, which puncture the bark withou 
further injury. The milking (one can scarcely call it mee 
has also been practised on trees of various ages and at different 
intervals and seasons. While it is found that the yield of 
individual trees varies extremely, none of the experimenters is 
satisfied that the small quantity m ble by present methods 
is sufficient to make the cultivation profitable at the existing 
young trees have been bled daily with the ‘pricker’ for some 
weeks, and that thus a cooly can collect about half a end of pum 
rubber per diem, thinks that, if trees will bear this treatment for 
240 days in the year, the cultivation would be remunerative. It 
appears evident that milking must be repeated at frequent 
intervals, and (as often already Sod out) the cultivation be 
onducted on a large scale. Much of the 35,000 acres in private 
sa in Ceylon, at present growing nothing but Lantana and 
other weeds, is suitable for this hardy plant, which costs nothing 
to cultivate. affords a substance of a value which is continually 
increasing, and awaits only the discovery of a process by whi ch 
the latter can be bodily ind exhaustively extracted." 
the Tropical Agriculturist for March, 1887, Mr. W. B. 
Lamont füciibéd the following results of experiments carried on 
by him in the districts of Heneratgoda and Mirigam a. 
be regarded as the most favourable obtained in the island :— 
“ Having reared about 100 plants of Ceara rubber up to their fifth 
arrived, through a long poris of experiments, at the following 
practical results :—N o satisfactory result will follow any we 
to obtain roduc before the tree is at least four years old 
system of cutting or piercing the bark will give a aa a y 
yield : and it is only in the dry season, when the tree is leafless, 
and the growth at a standstill, that a satisfactory result can be 
obtained in the way of harvesting. The plan a obtaining the 
rubber that my experiments led up to was, as s as the leaves 
begin to fall, to remove the outer bark in vertion do of not 
more than two inches wide, and not less than four inches apart. 
The tender inner bark thus exposed to the sun breaks out in 
process the strip of exposed bark is destroyed, but a vigorous tree 
will close in the bared part in the course of the year, if the width 
is not more than two inches Ceara rubber, planted at 100 trees 
