381 



be accepted with reserve, and until tests have been made on a i 

 estate over a considerable area by estate coolies [ consider tlt< j 

 increased returns shewn by this system to be not prosed. 



There are on the other hand very real objections to this method. 

 In the first place the cuts are scattered and irregular and while no 

 damage is done to the tree itself, yet the bark is greatly roughen* d 

 and the tapping surface rendered irregular and more difficult to 

 work a second time. From my own observation, I am inclined to 

 believe that the gaping of the bark produced by a first cut is out of 

 all proportion to the material removed. It is rather like the effect 

 of the first cut into a roast leg of mutton. Subsequent shaving and 

 reopening widens the gape by the amount removed and by no more. 

 Consequently a disjointed and scattered series of short cuts leads 

 to a rough and scarred bark on which is difficult to work. But a 

 second and more important objection is the number of cups required 

 for such a style of tapping. Ten cups to a moderate sized tree — -say 

 28 inches girth at 3 feet from the base, is a very modest allowance. 

 It only requires a simple multiplication sum to shew that with r,ooo 

 acres of 120 trees to the acre, and the plantation tapped entirely 

 twice a year, each cut being reopened fifteen times, nearly 100,000 

 cups would be required daily, or taking each cup as w eighing about 

 one ounce, then over two tons of cups would be carried out and 

 used every day. The labour of washing and drying the waste of 

 latex as scrap from the cups to say nothing of the wear and tear 

 which is excessive, when they have to be forced into the bark 

 of the tree in fixing, require it to be very clearly and definitely 

 established that a superior yield of rubber results from this system 

 of tapping if it is not to be entirely condemned. It certainly is 

 not a svstem, which in the present state of our knowledge can be 

 recommended. 



Another svstem of tapping which I understand was first tried 

 ill Ceylon is to make single cuts in such a position that the end 

 of one is two or three inches vertically above the beginning of 

 the second. These two cuts are then connected by a narrow ver- 

 tical cut. 



The way in which this system has been evolved, is, I think easy to 

 see. The number of cups required with single cuts and the labour 

 involved in their use had, even with small estates, become consider- 

 able, and evidently by connecting the cuts in pairs the number of 

 cups required would be halved. But if the intention be to econo- 

 mise cups and labour, this system does not go far enough, and in 

 any case it is difficult to see the advantage of this fancy zig-zag cut 

 over a single straight cut extending from the commencement of the 

 first to the end of the second cut. 



Tins system has, I consider nothing to commend it, and in the 

 irregular scarring of the bark and difficulty in fitting in new cuts oil 

 subsequent occasions on the areas untapped, is a special difficulty. 



A third system is that known as V cutting, and the name explains 

 the arrangement perfectly. The original cuts are reopened from 



