259 
trees 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 years. Another advantage of close planting is that the 
trees grow up straight without forming many branches low down, 
and this very greatly facilitates tappin 
“ Para rubber is a m feeding tres; and catch crops should 
not therefore be grown between c£ trees, which require all the 
nourishment that the soil can affor 
“ The young plants are greedily one by cattle, deer, hares, and 
other animals, and require careful protection for about eighteen 
months, after which time they are generally tall enough to 
vetro but little further protection 
* Weeding is also required for the first year or two, but after- 
wards the trees form a dense shade, under which but few weeds 
OW. 
“The comparatively superficial growth of the roots renders 
manuring easy, and it would probably be found advantageous in 
poor or sandy soils. 
* Rate of growth.—The tree adr Mani ey 1 in height. The 
original trees, planted at Henaratgod 1876, were about 30 feet 
high and 14 inches in girth two years taker. Tn 1882 the largest 
iree was 50 feet high and 25 inches in girth s a yard from the 
ground. The girth of this largest ie was taken et ded 
this, with the following resu ults: It was 30 inches n 1883, 
1884, 43 in 1885, 49 in 1886, 533 in “1887, 60 in 1888, 65 in 1889, 
693 in 1890, 73 in 1891, and 794 in 1893. "The girth of the largest 
tree in dA in Brazil by Mr. "rona was 82 inches. 
* The measurements above given are those of the largest tree. 
More useful data for paient ia and Bracken. peers are V ggg 
by baking the mean girth of all the on siderable 
This one in January, 1897, pi the rri cae A 
Bonnis, in 1876. This now consists of 45 trees, about 30 feet 
apart. The girth was taken at the height of the eye, about 5 feet 
6 inches above the grouud. The largest tree was 7 feet 5 inches, 
d smallest, 2 feet 1 pets in girth. The mean girth was 4 feet 
ine 
ne; Tappi ng.—The yield of rubber from very young or slender 
trees is too small to make their fapping worth Ms and it x best 
for many reasons to. abstain from tapping a tree until it has 
reached a girth of 2 feet. In a large plantation the girth ot the 
trees always varies between wide lim ew trees may be fit 
to tap after the sixth year, and in $E nbecaiadt year more and 
more trees will reach the size necessary. In favourable localities 
the bulk of the trees should be in bearing before the end of the 
eleventh year. The results of the experiments hitherto made at 
Henaratgoda go to show that it is inadvisable, having regard to 
the future, to tap trees of less than two feet i ug girth, but it is still 
uestion whether the minimum size of tree for tapping 
necessitate longer waiting for the return, as the mean rate o 
increase of girth in trees of this size is oly about tiko inches 
per annum. 
637 B2 
