170 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



task would be 150 trees of eight cuts, or 200 

 trees with six cuts. I think the best results 

 are obtained in the morning, starting work 

 at 6 o'clock he should easily finish by 2 p.m. 

 In the hot season latex should be taken to the 

 coagulating sheds twice a day. 



Control of Tappers, 



This is a matter for individual estates ; in 

 Ceylon where some of them are so steep, the 

 supervision of a large acreage is not possible, 

 I consider it is necessary to provide efficient 

 supervision (European or otherwise) for acre- 

 ages of from 250-300. 



Percentages of Grades. 



About 10 per cent, should cover Scrap and 

 Lump, and the balance good quality. 



Collecting Cdps. 



I am inclined to think that coconut shells 

 are the best and most economical; in fact I have 

 heard an opir.ion expressed by one of our best 

 known planters that the outturn is more even 

 than from metal cups. I do not think that 

 glass, porcelain or earthen ware are suitable 

 for Ceylon where most of our land is rough and 

 rocky and there would be a large percentage of 

 breakages. Coconut shells require little atten- 

 tion, and scrapers can always keep them clean. 



W. NEWBURGH TISDALL. 



THE PARA RUBBER TREE (HEVEA 

 BRAZILDENSIS.) 



MR. W. J. GALLAGHER'S LECTURE. 

 TAPPING AND TAPPING SYSTEMS. 



Mr, W. J . Gallagher, m. a., Director of Agri- 

 culture, F. M. S., whose valuable scientific ser- 

 vices in the interests of rubber are, to the 

 general regret of Eastern planters, about to be 

 lost to the F.M.S., and, in alesser degree, to other 

 Eastern rubber -growing colonies, delivered a 

 lecture on the Para Rubber Tree (Hevea Brasili- 

 ensis) early in 1909. It was a distinctly useful 

 and helpful lecture, and at the request of a 

 number of planters it has now been reprinted as 

 Bulletin No. 10 issued by the Department of 

 Agriculture, F. M. S. We are indebted to Mr. 

 Joseph Fraser for a copy and we certainly think 

 no up-to-date rubber planter should be with- 

 out one. Although the lecture was delivered a 

 year ago, Mr. Gallagher, in a foreword, states 

 that he has seen no reason to change mat- 

 erially what he then said, but his remarks on 

 tapping represent his views today only ; future 

 experiences may modify them considerably. 

 Mr. Gallagher opens with the statement that 

 it is the aim of all planters to follow such a 

 system of tapping as will give them the maxi- 

 mum of rubber with the minimum of injury 

 to the tree ; and he adds : " such a system is 

 yet to seek. " Mr. Gallagher deals very clearly 

 with the Para rubber tree, a section of which 

 is reproduced to show the various layers — heart 

 wood, sapwood, cambium, latex-bearing layer 

 and bark. He explains the organisation of the 

 tree in a most lucid manner and puts before 

 planters knowledge which is really necesary in 

 the selection of the safest and most economical 

 manner in which to tap the tree. With regard to 



time for renewal, the lecturer said that it was 

 pretty generally acknowledged that four years 

 mustbe allowed for renewal ; but in a note he 

 points out that at the recent planters' conference 

 the majority favoured three and some even two 

 years for renewal. It is, however, Mr. Gallagher 

 says, largely a question of closeness of planting 

 and of age. When trees are planted 24 ft. by 24 ft. 

 or over, he would allow three years; for less than 

 this distance, four years. Mr. Gallagher does not 

 favour tapping all four quarters at the same time; 

 by-following this plan, after a few months' tap- 

 ping, the latex flow falls off and compulsory "rest" 

 is needed. Equally bad, the lecturer considers, 

 the system sometimes followed on young trees 

 of putting on a V-shaped cut each half of which 

 goes half-way round the tree. He states the 

 objections to this at length. The Full Spiral 

 system he dismisses curtly " as a harmful and 

 wasteful system " and adds that a knowledge of 

 the anatomy of the tree would have enabled any 

 of them to predict its failure. The half-spiral 

 he regards as not quite so bad as the preced- 

 ing, for reasons which he states. The sys- 

 tem of adjacent quarters, a modification of 

 the herring-bone, he considers, has many 

 advantages over the preceding methods. 

 In it only one half of the highway is de- 

 stroyed ; but the full herring-bone system, 

 Mr. Gallagher frankly declares, appears to him 

 to have nothing particular to recommend it, 

 and to be inferior to the system of adjacent 

 quarters. Tapping opposite quarters is the first 

 system to receive Mr. Gallagher's favour. The 

 system has many advantages over the adjacent 

 quarters. The tree retaina its shape. If the 

 conducting channel is not made too deep, the 

 lateral movement of material is much l9ss inter- 

 fered with ; and this is particularly true of the 

 cuts below the uppermost two. Against these 

 advantages, however, must be put a larger per- 

 centage of scrap, owing to two main channels, 

 more "lump" on account of two cups being 

 necessary, and slightly slower tapping ; but 

 the lecturer does not think these disadvantages 

 outweigh the gain to the tree and to its bark 

 renewal. The one half-herring bone Mr. Gal- 

 lagher considers the best for the tree, and of 

 this system he says : — 



Tapping one-quarter at one time is certainly 

 the best tor the tree. The renewal will be better 

 and from actual experience I am inclined to 

 infer the flow will be better. I do not quite see 

 why one-quarter tapped over one year should 

 not be folio wad instead of two quarters tapped 

 over two years. The former has much to recom- 

 mend it, and is, I believe, the system of the 

 future. We know there is a limit to the close- 

 ness of cuts and to the number which may be put 

 on a tree, and this may, in a three years' renewal 

 system, make the single quarter undesirable. 

 The full herring-bone system is occasionally 

 varied by tapping three months on one half, 

 resting two, then three on the other half,followed 

 by two months rest, and back again for three 

 months to the first side tapped. This is un- 

 doubtedly wasteful. Every time a change is 

 made each cut must be tapped at least three 

 times before a normal flow of latex begins. With 

 a tapping force of 300 coolies this is a loss of 

 1800 names in ten months. 



