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The conditions required for the successful and profitable cultiva- 

 tion of Para (Hevea) Indian rubber are in my opinion, that it be re- 

 garded as a plantation — a cultivated product — rather than as one to 

 be planted with view of being widely disseminated, under canopy, of 

 an area covered by primitive standing forest. This opinion, formed 

 at the time of the original introduction of the Hevea to cultivation 

 at the instance of the Government of India in 1876, has been 

 strengthened by subsequent years of planting experience, and I am 

 convinced that any advice for the setting out of the Hevea rubber- 

 tree as a self-disseminating forest product i.e. planting it out under 

 canopy through wide areas of existing forests or jungle will be found 

 to be founded on fallacy. The Hevea has no light winged seed, as 

 mahogany and others, on the contrary, although the seed is scattered 

 to some extent around the parent tree by the bursting of the ripe 

 triform pod, it should be remembered that the seed is in form an 

 exceedingly heavy and oily nut, and falls thickly in a circumscribed 

 area. Even there it is exceedingly attractive to every four-footed 

 creature of the jungle, who devour it greedily. In its own forests 

 it owes its preservation only, as I think, to the fact that very veno- 

 mous and large snakes, the saracucu, are in the habit of lying in 

 waite about the base of these trees, in seeding time, and so ward 

 off to a great degree the agouti, Indian rabbits, and other rodents. 

 Forest deer, also, in my experience, are very destructive to the 

 young plants. In any case I have found that Hevea take at least 

 three times as long to come to productive size grown under forest 

 shade as under plantation cultivation free from top shade. Lateral 

 shade to the extent required, at first, for formation of a straight 

 trunk form is readily got by allowing intermediate "second growth" 

 to come up between the young Hevea for myself, I have known 

 these trees when grown in the open, seed abundantly in three years, 

 whereas they would have taken 10 to 12 to do so in the shade of 

 the woods. It is therefore recommended that Hevea should be sys- 

 tematically grown in cultivated plantation. For spacing distance, 

 I advise the half chain (33 ft. by 33 ft.) diagonal, as giving more 

 root scope. This gives 40 trees to the acre. Besides being a good 

 distance, the half chain is of practical advantage in marking off 

 forest land, as by opening lines with the prismatic compass or theo- 

 dolite, the man following can plant the seed to stake as the chain 

 is drawn over the lines. As soon as the young trees attain proper 

 trunk form the more light and air they are given, and the cleaner 

 they are kept, the stouter and quicker will be their growth, and in 

 the fourth to fifth year they would be in a condition to yield to a firs] 

 tapping for rubber latex; say, by using two cups taking on an aver- 

 age a pound (t lb.) of rubber during the drier season of that period. 

 The empty tins used for " preserved milk" answer admirably for 

 this purpose, as they are of about the right size, and being made of 

 thin tin readily bend to the shape of the tree trunk. The operation 

 if carefully done will not arrest the growth of the tree. It is rather 

 shown from experience that accumulation of the latex in the bark 

 of the trunk of the trees is augmented thereby. For the purpose of 

 extraction there has yet, as I think, been no better instrument de- 



