592 



evaporated off the dry rubber weighed J lb. The result of this 

 experiment is rather important from a financial point of view as it 

 has been pretty generally stated that no return from plantations 

 of these trees could be expected till the 8th or 9th vear ; whereas 

 it is quite evident they are ready for tapping at the 7th year, and 

 that trees planted at I 5 feet apart, i.e. 193 to the acre would yield 

 48 lbs. rubber per acre, value about £6 at the seventh year. 



A number of young plants of this rubber tree were planted out 

 in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, in the early part of this year 

 in a rather clayey slope in the Economic Gardens and in spite of 

 the prolonged drought of this vear have made excellent growth. 

 The plants being now five feet high and very strong and leafv. 

 Plants of Payena Leerii on the adjoining land planted at the same 

 time are not nearly so well advanced. No insect has attacked 

 them, nor has Meliola so verv common in this country done any 

 harm to them. Should this tree continue to grow as well as it has 

 begun to do, we may certainly add it to our stock of cultivatable 

 rubber, 



H. N. R. 



PARA RUBBER. 



As in the near future it will be necessarv on some estates, where 

 planting has been done thickly with the intention of thinning by 

 means of tapping to death at an early stage a portion of the crop, 

 the result obtained from four small trees growing in a nurserv in 

 connection with the Botanic Gardens, Pinang, mav be of interest. 

 In 1885 a seed bed was formed and when the plants were removed 

 five were left standing in a space not exceeding 4x4 feet. Under 

 such conditions development has necessarilv been slow but one 

 tree, as might naturally be expected, has outstripped the others 

 in the race and now has a girt of 27 inches at five feet from the 

 ground. This tree has not been tapped but the other four were 

 tapped in 1901, two of them severely, but no proper account was 

 kept of the rubber obtained. This year it was decided to tap them 

 again and if possible to kill them, but although barbarously backed 

 they show no sign of dying and in fact look just as green as the 

 one that has not been tapped at all. The measurements of these 

 trees at five feet from the ground are 22 inches, 20 inches, 18 in- 

 ches and 16 inches, or an average of 19 inches for each tree. The 

 amount of rubber obtained, prepared in thin sheets and quite dry, 

 is nine ounces, and scrap rubber, that is rubber that coagulated in 

 the cuts or on the tree and collected quite clean, four ounces, or 

 thirteen ounces in all. The largest quantity of sheet rubber ob- 

 tained at one operation was \ oz., and the number of times the 

 tapping was done twenty-six. The cost of collecting the rubber 

 from such small trees will not I am afraid leave any great margin 

 of profit. In the present case the work was done by a small Tamil 

 boy who was living on the spot, and I cannot say exactly how long 



