serve as cuttings 01 to improve the appearance of the tree, it is only 

 necessary to make incisions through the bark of the stem here and 

 there, should one of these cuts pass through the point where there 

 is a dormant bud this bud will commence growth and develop into 

 a branch. 



If the dormant buds are too thickly covered with wood so that 

 they cannot push through to the surface and form shoots, their 

 growth is arrested and a woody tumour is the result. In examining 

 a large series of trees which have been tapped in various ways one 

 observes that in ordinary herring-bone tapping the occurrence of 

 burrs after repair of the wound is not very common. They .usually 

 occur at the top corner of a cut, and are small. In the old Brazilian 

 system of single taps with a small chopper, they are very abundant, 

 and in some cases have thrown out shoots. In the case of the very 

 large burr referred to above the tree had not been tapped at that 

 point the injury was probably caused accidentally by a bough or 

 some such thing striking it. Casual careless wounds caused by 

 coolies or others hitting a tree with a parang may cause a burr to 



In the case of the small single bud burrs, the woody nodule is 

 gradually pushed out of the trunk and can be removed by a sharp 

 rap from a stick when the wound will soon heal. Larger ones if 

 objectionable can be cut off with a chisel and the wound allowed to 

 heal, but unless necessary this is not recommended in the case or a 

 big burr as the wound might not readily heal. 



The burrs and tumours in no way injure the vitality of the tree 

 or interfere with its health, but are certainly inconvenient for 

 tapping. Most old trees, however, have very irregular bark, and 

 often .rregular wood development, so that one does not get tne 

 smooth easily cut bark of the young tree, and tapping tools smtame 

 for the latter are not suited for the former. Indeed the greater 

 thickness and hardness of the bark of a twenty-year-old tree alone 

 would cause a modification of the tools necessary. 



Malacca Rubber Plantations, Limited 



BUKlT ASAHAN, 



Malacca, 10M March, 



Dear Ridley, — A number of our trees are developin^^^ 

 and lumps, it appears that wood forms between the cafflw ^ 

 the cork layers and spreads underneath the cork as islands 01 



