and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— Oct; 1910. 



363 



5. The tapping knife is 

 used both ways, right and 

 left, and both the cutting 

 edges are in use, resulting in 

 uniform wearing away of 

 the edges ; consequently the 

 tapping knife can be used 

 for a longer time than is 

 possible with one-sided tap- 

 ping, either right or left. 



t>. The Inverted V leaves 

 half of the stem untouched 

 for future use. 



S, This will enable one to 

 solve the question of the 

 quantity of latex obtained 

 by right-handed and left- 

 handed tappings. 



6. An uninterrupted high- 

 way extending to half of the 

 stem for the transport of 

 elaborated sap and the total 

 absence of girdling the stem. 



From the foregoing, you will see that I was 

 practising rubber tapping some 5 years ago on 

 the same lines as are now being suggested by 

 Dr. Fitting. 



In the Inverted V, one half of the stem is 

 tapped for the first two years and the other half 

 is tapped in the next two years, making in all 

 four years' tapping on the secondary cortex 

 of the stem. Tapping on the renewed bark is 

 commenced only in the 5th year. 



The sole reason for inverting the V was to 

 avoid too many channels and to work with only 

 two channels. Dr. Fitting in page 48 of his 

 pamphlet says : — " If the half herring bone 

 system is adopted, it would be possible to 

 use the canals of the 1st and 2nd tap- 

 ping periods, as drainage canals for the latex 

 when tapping the strips of bark III & IV. 

 Therefore only two such canals are required on 

 the stem. In that case it is, however, necessary 

 to make tapping cuts of periods III & IV. in 

 an oblique direction opposite lo those of periods 

 I & II.' (Italics are mine). 



This was the reason for diverging the two cuts 

 without converging them as suggested by the 

 Observer on the Feb. 18th, 1907. 



Will you be good enough to review this sys- 

 tem, which is in use here since 1906, giving ex- 

 cellent results.— i ours faithfully, 



INVERTED V. 



More Notes from Mr. J. Sheridan Patterson. 



Warwick, Ambawella, Sept. 25. 

 Sir,— The point raised by "Enquirer" in 

 Saturday's ''Times" as to whether tapping for 

 two full years on one side of the tree is likely 

 to prove injurious, is evidently partly answered 

 by "Inverted V." in his letter of the 21st inst. 

 which appeared in the Observer of the 22nd. 

 He therein states that "In the inverted V. 

 one-half of the stem is tapped for the first two 

 years, ' and goes on to say "Will you be good 

 enough to review this system, which is in use 

 here since 1906, giving excellent results"— pro- 

 ving that tapping one side for two years gives 

 satisfactory yield results. Professor Hans 

 Fitting on page 44 of his pamphlet says : "I do 

 not share the doubts that have been expressed 

 with regard to the vertical drainage canal. 

 I do not think that a canal can do much 

 damage to the bark provided it is not either 

 too deep or too wide." And Mr Gallagher 

 (Director of Agriculture, F, M. S.) says in" his 

 Tapping Lecture : "If the conducting channel 

 is not made too deep, the lateral movement of 

 material is much less interfered with." Very 



possibly the safest method of tapping is to wait 

 until trees are 6 to 8 years old, and then tap only 

 a quarter ; but it is to get over this waiting, 

 and be able to tap any tree that is 16 inches in 

 girth and 3 feet from the ground, that I have 

 suggested the system of only tapping one side of 

 the tree for two years with the object of then 

 being able to tap only two-thirds of the remain- 

 ing area, and still leave a sufficiently wide verti- 

 cal down strip of bark intact, connecting the 

 crown with the base of the tree. It might, when 

 getting on to the two-thirds, be advisable to 

 leave a narrow vertical strip of bark one or two 

 inches wide, intact, between the tapped out area, 

 and the new area to be tapped, so that a certain 

 downward sap-transport is still possible from the 

 leaves, on both sides of the originally tapped area; 

 but this is incidental. In any case tapping fortwo 

 years on one side must be better than tapping 

 half one side for one year, and then the other 

 half side for another year. This is at present 

 almost universally done, and in effect girdles the 

 tree. Harmful results from this process are not 

 apparent for several years; but, it it is continued 

 it must eventually affect the vitality of the tree, 

 and the danger is that the harm being done is 

 not apparent until really serious damage is done 

 as the water and inorganic nutrient salts ascend 

 chiefly in the wood to the crown — whereas the 

 descending movement of the inorganic substan- 

 ces towards the roots takes place chiefly in the 

 bark. Hence the crown appears healthy for a 

 long time after the roots are being starved, 

 owing to the down supplies being checked by 

 tapping systems that prevent the proper down- 

 ward flow ; and it is only when the damage has 

 become really serious that the crown begins to 

 look weakly, and gives the danger signal to stop 

 tapping or rest the tree. 



I wish someone, who has studied the subject 

 scientifically, would give an opinion on the 

 question raised by "Enquirer." Wo are all 

 seekers after truth, and it is only after nearly 

 10 years' practical tapping experience, in various 

 parts of the Island, that I havearrived by seeing 

 the results of various tapping systems, at con- 

 clusions, which Professor Hans Fitting and Mr 

 Gallagher prove scientifically— their complete 

 and emphatic condemnation of the use of the 

 pricker, and the non-importanco they attach to 

 whether you tap from right to left, or left to 

 right, proving how correct their conclusions are. 

 Very satisfactory results have been obtained for 

 many years on many estates by many systems, 

 but I believe that by some system which leaves 

 you an intact vertical strip of bark, or a strip 

 of renewed bark, not less than three years 

 old, your trees will remain healthier, and con- 

 sequently, from a smaller tapped area, better 

 results will be actually obtained. 



Since Mr. Herbert Wright's compilation, 

 nothing has emanated from Ceylon helpful to 

 rubber planters. Mr Gallagher has been in- 

 valuable to the Straits plauter, and his recom- 

 mendations and those of Professor Hans Fitting 

 agree to a marvellous extent. It is a great pity 

 that Profepsor Hans Fitting did not carry out 

 his experiments in Ceylon, instead of in Java 

 whore ho was short of trees to experiment with' 

 for he writes : " It is evident that there are 

 many important questions, which arise in 



