184 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



systems have been tried, and amongst others 

 the basal V., herring-bone, half-herring bone, 

 pricking, full spiral, half spiral, and recently a 

 one-third spiral system has come into favour. 

 The spiral system appears to be most popular, 

 and the one-third spiral is being adopted on 

 several estates. The method is as follows : — 

 A longitudinal groove is cut in the bark of the 

 tree from the base upwards ; one-third of the 

 way »-ound the tree a second groove is cut 

 parallel with the first and terminating some 

 inches higher than it; another grove is then 

 cut from the top of the first groove to the top 

 of the second ; at each tapping a shaving of 

 bark is taken off between the two longitudinal 

 grooves until the whole of the hark has been 

 removed between these two grooves. The same 

 operation i3 repeated on the next third section 

 of the tree, and by the time the tree has been 

 tapped right round the bark on the original 

 one-tbird has renewe.l itself, and is ready to 

 be tapped again. As the tapping is in a spiral 

 form it runs round the spiral till it reaches the 

 first longitudinal, and runs down that, and is 

 collected in a cup placed at the base. In order 

 to assist its rapid flow into the cup, a twig 

 clipped in water is run round the tapping line 

 immediately the tapping has been done and 

 this reduces the amount of scrap rubber which 

 adheres to the tree. Under this system, if pro- 

 perly carried out, there should be no necessity 

 for resting trees (of which a good deal has been 

 heard lately, but perhaps more in other parts of 

 the world than in Ceylon), as one-third ot the 

 bark is always ready for tapping. A further ex- 

 tension of this system is sometimes adopted 

 when the trees have attained a considerable 

 girth— that i3, the one-fourth spiral — by which 

 the tree is divided into fourths instead of thirds, 

 and only one-fourth of the bark is operated on 

 at a time. Men, women or children are employed 

 for tapping, and quite young boys may be seen 

 at this work ; they make very good tappers, and 

 will sometimes earn almost as much as a man. 

 It is rather comical to see the very small young- 

 sters who are employed to pick the scrap off the 

 trees. Just as there are so many methods of 

 tapping, so there are so many kinds of tapping 

 and paring knives, while the pricker is still 

 used by some planters, and is highly spoken of 

 by them. By this system the bark is pricked 

 into instead of being pared off; but its advan- 

 tages (or otherwise) had perhaps better be left 

 for the expert to discuss. In the time taken to 

 coagulate the latex practice varies considerably ; 

 on some estates coagulation is completed in ten 

 to fifteen minutes, whilst on others the operation 

 is continued for three or four hours ; the time 

 varies according to the amount and strength of 

 acid used. Trees are quite ready for initial tap- 

 ping, in suitable districts, at about A\ years old, 

 as in many cases they are at that age over 18 in. 

 in circumference at a height of 3 ft. from the 

 ground ; it is, however, somewhat surprising to 

 observe how the size of trees of precisely the 

 same age varies, even in the same field, trees 

 next to one another in a row often showing 

 difference in girth. The reason for this is, 

 apparently, that some trees find a looser lay of 

 soil than others, and are thus able to get their 

 roots down rapidly. 



Other Matters of Interest. 



Methods of drying the rubber after manu- 

 facture are also diverse. In some cases a vacuum 

 drying machine is used which will dry the rub- 

 ber in a few hours ; in other cases it is merely 

 hung in a drying-room (generally a former tea- 

 withering room), where it is left for as long as a 

 week. A now drying installation is in use at 

 one factory by which the drying-rooms are 

 heated by hot air supplied by pipes of large 

 diameter, having numerous aoertures through 

 which the hot air escapes into the rooms; a 

 large exhaust fan sucks out the air, so that a 

 fresh supply of hot air is continually being cir- 

 culated. 



Fears are sometimes expressed that disease 

 will play havoc with the rubber plantations of 

 Ceylon, as it did with coffee in the old days, 

 with such disastrous results : but, so far as can 

 be seen, there is very little disease on any of the 

 estates, and where it has appeared it has been 

 so speedily dealt with that it has had no chance 

 of spreading. There seems little doubt but 

 that, with the increased experience in all forms 

 of tropical agriculture and the expert assistance 

 and advice at hand, the chances of any disease 

 having a widespread effect are very much less 

 than was the case thirty or forty years ago. 

 With the opening up and extension of so many 

 estates, the question of fuel has become an im- 

 portant one, the supply of firewood, which was 

 generally used, being obviously insufficient for 

 the increased needs. Oil fuel installations are 

 being very generally adopted, particularly on 

 the larger estates, the oil being supplied in bulk 

 by tank carts. Up-country the water power is 

 oiten sufficient for turbines to be used, but 

 these 1 are found rather on the higher tea estates, 

 and not so much on the lower-lying rubber pro- 

 perties. 



It is somewhat surprising to find that, al- 

 though capital has been so largely provided 

 from the country for the development and ex- 

 tension of estates in Ceylon, there is in very 

 few cases any independent audit of the accounts 

 in the country, the supervision undertaken by 

 the local agents being, no doubt, considered to 

 be sufficient. It is no uncommon thing in the 

 Federated Malay States and Straits Settle- 

 ments, as well as in Java, for the estate ac- 

 counts to be professionally audited on the spot, 

 so that the adoption of such a course could not 

 present serious difficulties in Ceylon, and has, 

 obviously, much to recommend it. — Financial 

 Times, Dec. 11. 



MOKE FROST ON TEA. 



A planter high up writes (on 8th inst.):— " We 

 had a severe frost last night again, and I will 

 see how my experiment in covering some 

 exposed bushes in hollows turns out and how 

 these bushes compared with those in other 

 hollows, not protected, though quite as much 

 exposed to frost. 1 ' It will be interesting to 

 know if waste pruning or bracken-ferns as cover- 

 ing are effectual against frost ? 



