and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society 

 THE 



79 



RUBBER TAPPING PATTERNS 

 "CHAIN-GAMMA." 



Mr. C Boden Kloss writes as follows in the 

 " Agricultural Bulletin," Singapore, for Novem- 

 ber : — All methods of tapping rubber trees 

 are, one may say, combinations or varia- 

 tions of the oblique incision and probably 

 the two most popular methods in use in Malaya 

 at present are the V and the herring-bone. It 

 is objected however to the former that so many 

 cups are required. The latter is frequently to 

 be seen deprecated on account of the central 

 channel which is a mere conductor of latex, 

 being unproductive in itself and wasteful of 

 cortex. It is said also that it lessens the ten- 

 sion of the bark aud therefore tends to minimise 

 the output of rubber. If such is so with the full 

 herring-bone, how much more proportionately 

 is the vertical channel uneconomical in the case 

 of the half-herring-bone ! Examining recently 

 a series of trees tapped by the latter method it 

 appeared to me that if the length and position 

 of the conducting channel were somewhat 

 altered it could be made both productive of latex 

 and thus less wasteful of bark while, besides, 

 the natural tension would probably remain un. 

 affected. I therefore sketched out the following 

 pattern (Fig. 1 the dotted line representing the 

 original verticle channel) of a modified half- 

 herring-bone— I should like to say improved, 

 but from lack of opportunity to test it cannot 

 yet do so — which, if we desire to stick to the 

 alphabet for tapping nomenclature, instead of a 

 number of Roman Vs occupying the tree at in- 

 tervals, might be described as a column of 

 Greek Ys ascending the trunk — ascending be- 

 cause tapping must be done from base upwards. 

 A very symmetrical pattern that would probably 

 heal rapidly is also obtained by reversing each 

 alternate \ . Having gone so far it was of course 

 obvious that the alteration should be carried to 

 its logical conclusion and thus Fig. 2 was 

 obtained. The basis of the method is itself a 

 very simple pattern, productive throughout all 

 its length. This is a continuous regular zig- 

 zag, but I am not aware that it has been ex- 

 perimented with in this form for the orthodox 

 zig-zag seems to be two oblique cuts joined by 

 a vertical, and so useless, channel. The advan- 

 tage of the full pattern however is that the 

 flow from the lateral projections at once forms 

 a leading stream which is joined by the descend- 

 ing latex from each step above as tapped, and 

 so obviates any likelihood of delay or overflow 

 at the angles. I fancy that the pattern will be 

 found very productive and of value when it is 



required to obtain a large amount of rubber per 

 tree. The proportion of scrap will probably be 

 small owing to the strong flow of latex through- 

 out; the fluid from above helping to wash 

 down that below and thus differing from the 

 ordinary herring-bone where the latex in th e 

 lateral cuts soon begins to coagulate. From 

 time to time various tapping patterns have 

 been tried and found unsatisfactory, the single 

 incision, for instance, and the Ceylon spiral 

 which is now being regarded as hardly fulfilling 

 all that was expected of it, and the above ideas 

 will perhaps rind a place in the same category, 

 but as I am at present unable to experiment 

 with them myself I should be glad to hear, 

 through your pages, what results have been 

 obtained by any one who thought the notions 

 worthy of a trial. 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 



AFRICAN RUBBER AND RAILWAYS. 



A potentially rich rubber-producing district 

 of Portuguese Africa is to be opened up by 

 a new railway just authorised by the Colonial 

 Government. The railway in question is from 

 the Port of Inhambane to the military post 

 of Inharrime, both of which are in the district 

 of Inhambane. An average annual export of 

 32 tons of india-rubber is accredited to the 

 district in question during the last two years. — 

 India Rubber Journal, Dec. 16. 



