5H 



kind of timber and the dryness or humidity of the soil, these being 

 the principal things to consider. At the time of planting the six- 

 or-eight-month seedling is between 18 and 30 inches high ; and 

 though some have planted the seeds themselves 2 or 3 to each 

 stake there is nearly always a heavy loss from the small lizards or 

 chirbalas, and re-planting never ends. A cleaning is given to the 

 young Rubber about three months after planting. This is not 

 more than a rough chop-down 4 or 5 feet on each side of the rows 

 of plants (which are set about 18 or 20 feet apart both ways) and 

 is repeated 5 or 6 months later, and kept on pretty much in this 

 manner once or twice a year to ensure the Rubber tree good free- 

 dom from the scrub or undergrowth, while at the same time it is 

 being shaded overhead by the trees of the virgin forest left stand- 

 ing. The style of Rubber tree thus obtained is similar in growth 

 to the forest Rubber tree a long straight trunk with but few extend- 

 ing branches. In the preceding manner Mr. KOSCHNEY planted 

 about 6 hectares (15 acres, for his neighbours Messrs. Kotelmann 

 and Heynsohn, about 6 years ago, and so far the plantation leaves 

 nothing to be desired. Mr. KOSCHNEY has several rubber trees 

 of long standing in his pastures and other cleared ground, quite 

 sufficient to prove that, alone in the open the rubber tree cannot 

 flourish, a large number of lateral branches being developed ; the 

 flow of latex is very small and of poorer quality, and the tree often 

 dies after a few tappings. The only known advantage of the rub- 

 ber tree grown in the open is that for production of seed it is 

 more prolific. In past years Mr. KOSCHNEY experimented unsuc- 

 cessfully by adopting another method — that of felling all the timber 

 after scattering rubber seed broadcast. Bananas were planted also 

 at the same time. At first the rubber come up like corn, every 

 seed seemed to have sprouted, but in a few months many died, 

 and the increasing growth of the bananas affected the balance 

 unfavourably. 



Mr. CARL Grutzmacher, a settler in Cano Negro, is a strong 

 advocate of another system in rubber-planting, differing consider- 

 ably from the "light shade" method, and though his experience 

 does not cover many years, his hopes of success are very bright 

 at the present time. It calls for the seed-bed 6 or 8 months old, 

 but the felling of all the trees in the forest for planting, the young 

 plants being set out in rows 18 or 20 feet on each side of the rows 

 of plants, and so on at regular intervals of three months until the 

 plantation is 1 year old, when everything is cut down again, and 

 the rubber trees stand alone in the open, but only for a short time. 

 In about 3 months the soft-wood or charral growth is up again 

 almost equal to the small Rubber trees, and another cut down in 

 the rows is given, and repeated at gradually increasing intervals 

 serving to give at all times an advantage in height to the Rubber 

 tree above the charral, the latter serving as a perpetual and regu- 

 lated shade to the trunk of the tree, but with no large forest trees 

 to shade its crown. The growth of the tree is also similar to that 

 of the wild Rubber tree. A little observation is needed to see that 

 this is a tree grown precisely under the same conditions as the forest 



