101 
should neither be allowed to become thoroughly dry, but be kept always: 
mois 
3. As the seedlings are very small at first у must be treated with 
great care, and drip from trees above the seed bed must be guarded 
against ; the soil must be kept loose, and os vegetable mould is the 
best soil. 
w the seedlings are 2—3 ee £e they have formed rend 
a little thickened root something like a small carrot, and can then be 
transplanted very safely; this should "ie done on to a a pro viri vis 
nursery bed, well drained, and the seedlings should there be placed. 
sita one foot in lines also a foot from each other. 
. After the seedlings have become 1-2 feet in height they are very 
mee and can be A ogy ши at any time of the year, but as the deer. 
are very much after the leaves of the rubber trees. and to avoid the 
great expense of fencing in our F plantation we have of late years trans- 
planted the young trees a second time in nurseries giving them more 
room, say, 3-4 feet square each plant, and let them grow until 10 to 
12 feet high, when they can be put out into the plantation акын ос: 
that the deer. will destroy them ; they require, however, a strong st 
each, as the deer will bend the young trees down with their horns, if 
not stake 
6. The seed of Ficus elastica, where the tree grows naturally in the 
forests, реше almost invariably in the forks of trees, 30 to 40 ) feet 
roots reach the ground, and increase rapidly in size, until some of meme 
reach a girth >. fum 4 to 6 feet; they are very numerous, and it 
not uneommon at a later age that they are thrown out And from the 
upper branches 80 to 80 feet from the ground, etd first as thin as 
whipcords, but very soon increasing in size after they "have reached the 
ground ; it thus сану happens that the tree on which the young 
rubber seedling first germinated, is killed by the more vigorous growing 
Ficus elastica, which in this respect resembles the well ‘known Banyan 
tree, and is one of the largest growing members of our mixed forest in 
Assam uires an exceedingly damp atmosphere to do well, and 
therefore shelves best at the foot of the mountains, or on the mountains 
themselves up to an elevation of 2,000 feet. It is met with also at a 
higher elevation, but n so vigorous, and at 5,000 feet it is liable to be 
xU or killed b 
7. Seedlings of Ficus elastica planted in the forks of trees in the 
forest are very diffieult to attend to, and they in consequence often 
become dry about their roots, “whieh retards their growth if it does not 
kill them ; for these reasons the rubber trees planted on the ground 
have grown much better in the Assam Soames u ~ the latter mode 
of planting has therefore been adopted almost exclusively ; they are not 
planted, however, on the ground in the се “wae but on small 
mounds, 3 to 4 feet high, of earth, and the cut-wood and rubbish close 
at hand, which suits the epiphytal habit of growth of this tree. 
h ber trees can also readily be propagated from cuttings if 
only perfectly ripe young branches or shoots are used; but young trees 
s never are so hardy as the seedlings, and do not make equally 
good growth afterwards. 
9. 'To ensure the test possible amount of moisture in the atmo- 
sphere, the plantations of Ficus elastica have been made in the moist 
evergreen forest near the foot of the hills, through which lines 40 feet in 
. width were cleared 100 feet apart from centre to centre of the lines, 
