AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 



No. 12.] DECEMBER, 1906. [Vol. V. 



THE SECOND ANNUAL REPORT 



ON THE 



Experimental Tapping of Para Rubber 

 Trees in the Botanic Gardens, 

 Singapore, 



FOR THE YEAR 1905, 



The Experimental research into the yield of latex and caoutchouc, 

 the growth of trees and other points of importance bearing on the 

 cultivation of Para Rubber trees was continued during the year. 

 A clerk and from six to ten men were employed in the work, and 

 their wages, the rebuilding of the drying house, and the necessary 

 tools and chemicals for the work, were paid for out of the money 

 obtained by the sale of the rubber prepared during the experiments 

 as in the previous year. Though the price of rubber had fallen 

 from 6/gd. per pound to 6/ 2d., the increased amount of rubber 

 obtained, 1,1 10 lbs., as against 884 lbs., more than compensated 

 for this fall. 



The General Plan of ;he Research. 



For the purpose of the experiments the same trees were used in 

 1905 as in 1904, but the experiments were modified both in method 

 and in the periods of tapping. The spiral method of tapping so 

 highly spoken of in Ceylon was experimented with, and the results 

 are treated of separately, but as far as the series of experiments first 

 to be detailed are concerned the herring-bone system only wasadopted, 

 and with it experiments in variation in yield due to evening and 

 morning tappings, single and full incisions, and tapping every day 

 and on alternate days were carried out. Investigations into the 

 effects of tapping throughout the year, and to show whether the 

 same groups of trees could be tapped more than once in the year 

 without inflicting any injury on them were also carried out. For 



