378 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



branches at a diameter of not more than eight 

 feet, so that closely planted Ceara trees will 

 never interfere with each other. I have had 

 an offer from the Government, subject, of 

 course, to the usual guarantees on the part of 

 the purchasers, of nearly 



10,000 ACRES 

 in the district just mentioned, admirably suited to 

 Ceara rubber, tobacco, cotton a'nd the soya bean. 

 From Ceara and the latter crop 1 have great ex- 

 pectations. I do not anticipate much difficulty 

 in regard to labour and I do not anticipate any 

 possibility of the failure of thesa two particular 

 crops. As regards tobacco one could never 

 wish to see a finer crop than that at present 

 being gathered in the experimental gardens at 

 Maha lluppalama. 



Para. 



"In regard to the general cultivation of Para 

 rubber I can only say that in view of the pros- 

 pects of very wide cultivation in the Straits and 

 Java that it will be wise for intending planters 

 to place this tree in the districts in Ceylon which 

 have been proved to be best suited for it, such 

 as Kalutara, Ratnapura, Sabaragamuwa, and 

 other warm and moist districts. I think that 

 in the early stages Para rubber in Ceylon ought 

 to be heavily manured until the tapping stage 

 is reached. The tree should then be left to take 

 care of itself for a few years. 



A Conference on Tapping Urged. 



"I strongly urge the importance of a con- 

 ference, at the Very earliest opportunity, _ of 

 planters and others, on the question of tapping 

 rubber, and the treatment generally of the 

 tree, otherwise 1 fear that we shall be faced 

 with a disaster that may or may not be a re- 

 petition of the coffee smash. 



The Ceara Rubber at Maha Iluppalama. 



Speaking of the Ceara rubber at Maha Ilup- 

 palama, Mr. Wicherley said : — " It is about two 

 years old and has already attained a circum- 

 ference of over 20 inches on many trees. They 

 are being tapped and the latex from them, the 

 yield of my own experimental tapping, was of a 

 beautiful creamy colour and coagulated almost 

 immediately on exposure to the air. This shows 

 the excellent quality of the rubber and the 

 early maturity of the tree." 



3 AM BE ft AND LOCK ON TAPPING. 



LATEST PERADENIYA GARDENS 

 CIRCULAR. 

 The latest Botanic Gardens Circular, "On the 

 effect of different intervals between successive 

 tappings in Para rubber ( Bevea Braziliansis) " 

 by Mr. M. Kelway Bambor and Dr. R. H. Lock, 

 is of special interest in view of the recently 

 revived tapping controversy. The writers state 

 that the experiments were designed with a view 

 to ascertaining what differences, if any, exist in 

 the quantity, composition, and properties of 

 rubber latex drawn from the trees by tappings 

 carried out at different intervals of time. They 

 were made upon a group of trees upwards of 

 twenty years old planted in squares at a distance 

 of 12 feet apart in the Tropical Gardens of 

 Heneratgoda and were begun in June, 1908. 

 Seventy trees were chosen in seven rows, such 

 that the total circumference of the ten trees in 



each row was as nearly as possible the same. 

 The plan of the experiment was to tap the trees 

 of the first row every day, of the second every 

 seconi day, and so on up to the seventh which 

 was tapped every seventh day. The tapping 

 took place in the eaily morning. The system of 

 tapping was one not recommended for practical 

 estate work but one, which made it compara- 

 tively easy to ensure that the tapping operation 

 covered a precisely comparable area of each tree. 

 \t was also a drastic method in order to arrive at 

 some test of the powers of enduranceof the trees. 

 The latex obtained daily from each tree was 

 separately measured and recorded and the whole 

 amount obtained from one row of trees was 

 mixed together, and coagulation effected. When 

 dry, the weight of the prepared biscuits was 

 determined and recorded. The dry scrap rubber 

 obtained daily from each row of trees was simil- 

 arly weighed. The weight of biscuits prepared 

 one day added to the weight of scrap collected 

 next morning gave the total dry rubber obtained 

 from a single tapping. The above is a brief sum- 

 mary of the writers' description of the experi- 

 ments. In giving conclusions they emphasize the 

 fact that the experiments were carried out upon 

 trees upwards of twenty years of age, which had 

 not previously been tapped with any regularity, 

 and which were beginning to show obvious signs 

 of the ill-effects of close planting. The principal 

 conclusions are as follows : — 



Taking the first 40 tappings of each series, there 

 is no sensible difference in yield which can be as- 

 cribed to the length of the interval between suc- 

 cessive tappings. The yield from trees tapped daily 

 and from trees tapped weekly is practically identi- 

 cal for the same number of tappings, both in the 

 gross and in proportion to the area of bark tapped. 



During the first few tappings the rate of fall 

 in the percentage of rubber contained in the 

 latex is more or less inversely proportionate to 

 the length of the interval between successive 

 tappings, the fall being more rapid as the tap- 

 pings succeed each other at shorter intervals. 

 Sooner or later a nearly constant percentage com- 

 position of the latex is arrived at. This final 

 percentage is lower in the case of trees tapped at 

 shortintervals than in the case of trees tapped 

 at longer intervals. 



As might be expected from the less concen- 

 trated condition of the latex, the proportion of 

 scrap rubber obtained is lower in the case of 

 more frequent tappings. 



Mature trees tapped daily for eighteen months 

 continue to afford a profitable yield of rubber. 

 After yielding over 7 pounds of rubber per tree 

 in this period , the average yield at the 440th tap- 

 ping was at the rate of 4 pounds of dry rubber 

 per tree annually. The general appearance of 

 the trees at this time was quite healthy, and 

 they showed no signs of having suffered from 

 the severe tapping which they had undergone. 



It is apparent, therefore, that frequent tap- 

 pings are to be recommended from a practical 

 point of view so far as more yield is concerned, 

 but the removal of bark is, of course, propor- 

 tionately more rapid. On the quarter system of 

 tapping this is of less importance, and it still re- 

 mains to be determined whether it would not 

 pay better to tap daily during certain months 

 and rest the trees, or only tap at two or more 

 days' interval during the months when flow is less. 



