556 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



Mr Baxendale— then said : — " Before ven- 

 turing to address an audience, which includes 

 so many planters who have had the advantage 

 ot a more varied experience than my own, I 

 would like to make it clear that with one 

 exception my remarks only apply to a 

 very limited area in one of the (Joast dis- 

 tricts. The conditions, soil, rainfall, etc., are 

 bo different in the hill country and the lowlands, 

 that I shall be failed with a glad surprise if my 

 experiences have been generally shared by those 

 whose interests are confined to an Uiu district. 

 1 must at any rate go to the hill country for 

 the highest yield I have ever known. This was 

 from one of the trees imported by the late Sir 

 Hugh Low, and it is growing on Gapis Estate, 

 Perak. In fifteen days, from July 17th-July 31st, 

 1902, 1 collected lb of rubber from three small 

 outs close to the base. After I left Gapis, Mr 

 Salisbury continued the tapping spasmodically, 

 and the total result of our labour, in 35 day s 

 actual tapping (between July 17th and Sept. 

 18th) was 18 lb. of rubber dried in lumps. The 

 tree was 25 years old and measured 89 inches in 

 girth, at one yard from the ground. At the 

 risk of depreciating shares in Coast district 

 Estates I must regretfully turn to my own 

 country-side and submit nine pounds an 

 acre a month as the average for the first 

 three months' tapping of tour year old 

 trees, as the lowest yield 1 have experienced. 

 While it may be asserted that a large and 

 well distributed rainfall is essential, the bene- 

 fit is not always immediately apparent. For 

 instance, I found the yield per coolie in the 

 wettest month last year considerably below the 

 average. The fact that the tasks were completed 

 later in the day no doubt had a good deal to do 

 with this, but when the trees become very wet 

 the latex washes over thecuts and spreads itself 

 in such a fine layer down the bark that it is 

 most difficult to collect even in scrap form. I do 

 not find that this has any adverse effect on the 

 yield. Both this year and last year our highest 

 yields, not only by the coolie but by acre as 

 well, were in February and March when the 

 wintering was general. A certain botauical 

 authority, who from time to time writes to 

 financial papers advising that no more than 40 

 trees should be planted to the acre, evidently 

 fails to take into consideration the damage clone 

 to such brittle trees, by wind, white ants and 

 fungus. The fewer trees, the greater the 

 percentage of loss ; but even if all survive, I 

 question if you would be getting the best 

 results from your land by such wide planting. 

 Basing my "results from avenue trees (8 lb. 

 each at S years old), I find that if the trees in 

 the old fields had been planted 10' x 40' instead 

 of 15' x 15', we should be harvesting consider- 

 ably less rubber than we do at present. 1 know 

 that 15' x 15' is now generally considered too 

 close ; but, at any rate, it allows of a good selec- 

 tion being made when thinning out becomes 

 necessary. The best result 1 can quote from 

 any field in the^Coast districts came from one 

 originally plauted with 312 trees to the acre, 

 atid gradually reduced to 140— at ten years old. 

 While I believe in the advantage of regular 

 and systematic tapping, I have on more than 

 yne occasion seen striking evidence that the 



Para tree accumulates reserves of latex. Of 

 course, I am aware that many people hold the 

 same theory on this subject that others hold 

 about women, dogs and walnut trees — ' The 

 more you beat (or tap) 'em the better they 

 be,' and anything I may say which savours to 

 the contrary may bo regarded almost heresy 

 by some present. I do not mean to say, 

 that if the 25-years-old tree I tapped for the 

 first time in 1902 had been tapped twenty years 

 earlier it would not have yielded far more 

 rubber in the course of its natural life — and I 

 am also prepared to allow that it would have 

 been more profitable to its owners, unless its out- 

 put had flooded the market for pencil eraser 

 which was its most important purpose in those 

 days— but I think 1 am justified in entertaining 

 doubts of the yield being maintained at the rate 

 of half-a-pound a day, until someone tells me he 

 has collected 18u lb. of rubber from any tree in 

 a year. It is the same story with young trees. 

 1 never now see the brimming cups of latex that 

 used to gladden my heart in bygone days when 

 we tapped our trees vigorously for three months 

 of the year and rested them for nine. But now, 

 though the tree yields less per day, it yields 

 more in the year and it pays to tap every clay (or 

 alternate day) if the price of rubber was even 

 less than 12s a lb. There is, however, this to be 

 said for 'resting.' If your estate happened 

 to be — unlike any of those floated in the last 

 tew years — ehort of labour, — you would have 

 the consolation of knowing that you could get 

 back some of the arrears and at less cost of col- 

 lection — provided the shortage was not great 

 enough to make the 'rest' too long." 



Mr. Trotter and Mr. Lake— said they found 

 that the response of rubber to rain was felt the 

 second day following that on which the rain fell. 



Mr P W Parkinson — said his experience was 

 that the yield was higher in wet than in dry 

 weather. 



Mr Duncan — said that trees responded very 

 quickly to rain in flat land. 



Mr E V Carey — said that, on the whole, he 

 found the yield better in wet than dry weather. 



Mr Trotter — then described the case of two 

 neighbouring estates one of which, in March, 

 1909, was yielding at a much higher rate from 

 young tree6 than the other from old trees, while 

 in March of this year the opposite was the case; 

 the estate whose trees were yielding so much 

 in 1909 was not doing as well, while the estate 

 with the older trees was yielding excellently. 



Mr Dupuis Brown- thought seeding affected 

 the yield. The decrease in the published figures 

 of February outputs from estates this year was 

 very marked. 



It was pointed out by some of those present 

 that February was a short mouth, that it in- 

 cluded a Tamil holiday, and that these two fac- 

 tors necessarily made for a decreased output. 



Mr R W Harrison— thought that hill ground 

 maintained yield better in drought than rubber 

 planted in flat land. 



Bark Renewal. 



On the question of bark renewal, the next 

 item on the agenda, Mr Cumming said that 

 regarding distance of planting, which was a 

 factor, a great deal depended on the configu- 

 ration of the land, Closer planting was possible 



