184 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist. 



from one-third to one-half of the original pri- 

 mary bark below five feet.. There will be no 

 necessity to think of tapping renewed bark on 

 Vallambrosa for a long time to come, though 

 some of it is already over three years old, and 

 full of rich latex. The various sectious have 

 been planted at 10 by 10, 10 by 12, 17 by 17, 



20 by 10, and 20 by 12 feet apart ; all the latter 

 day clearings are planted 21 by 12 owing to the 

 large yields already obtained from a very big 

 block planted at that distance. 1 was informed 

 that the trees on that block gave 3 to 4 lb of rub- 

 ber each ; the more closely planted estates gave 

 about 2 cwt. per acre during the same period. 



The rate of growth on many clearings is 

 phen iineually rapid, and woald cause many 

 Ceylon planters to ponder. 1 measured many 

 trees, not yet three years old, which were 18 to 



21 inches in circumference a yard from 

 the ground ; they will be 24 inches long before 

 they are four years old. Most of the young 

 plants have been thumb-nail pruned at about ten 

 feet from the ground, and now possess good 

 heads of fresh healthy foliage. 



There are now nearly 1.000 acres at the tipp- 

 ing stage ; 250,000 lb will probably be obtained 

 during the current year. This should be very 

 largely exceeded when the young clearings are in 

 bearing. — H.W. — India Rubber Journal^ une 29. 



PARA RUBBER TREES IN GOVERN- 

 MENT GARDEN AT TENOM, 

 B.N. BORNEO. 



Report on Tapping of Sixty Trees. 

 The yield of one and three-quarters pounds of 

 rubber per tree in 12 months' tapping of trees 

 between 5 and 6^ years old (at the termination 

 of these experiments) is extremely satisfactory 

 and so is the work of the tapping coolie who 

 took on an average 10 cuts to remove one inch 

 of bark : most of this tapping was done with an 

 ordinary farrier's knife and some with a " safety ' 

 tapping knife, both simple instruments devoid 

 of adjusting apparatus and so " fool proof. - ' The 

 trees were tapped every alternate day for one 

 year without any rest except on such days as 

 rainfell or the tapper was sick : they seem none 

 the worse for this treatment and have yielded 

 20,849 seed as against 11,591 the previous year. 

 Wounds from the " Y " tapping seem to heal 

 much more quickly and evenly than those from 

 " half herring bone " (all were done by the same 

 coolie) probably the extra irritation from the 

 three cuts of the latter prevented the regular 



healing of the wounds. There is practically no 

 difference in yield per tree by either method of 

 tapping, but the " half herring bone"' system 

 has required the excision of 189 square inches of 

 cortex for each pound of dry rubber obtained 

 whereas the " Y " system only requires the ex- 

 cision of 147 square inches to obtain the same 

 amount. This year's experiment will be the 

 comparison of 50 trees tapped on the "Y" system 

 against 50 trees, tapped on " i " system. One 

 hundred and fifty five (155) Para rubber trees in 

 Government experimental gardens at Tenom 

 were planted, not before December, 1900, nor 

 a^ter July, 1902 (exact date is uncertain as no 

 records were kept.) The plants have been 

 uncared for and allowed to grow as they liked, 

 with the result that about one-quarter of them 

 have two or three stems : this lowers consider- 

 ably the average girth as in these calculations 

 each separate stem is regarded as a separate 

 tree : even then we get an average girth at five 

 to six-and-half-years old of twenty-one inches 

 at three feet from the ground, and the average 

 increase in the girth during the last twelve 

 months (ending 31st July, 1907) is four and 

 three-quarter inches (Singapore Botanic Gar- 

 den records an average of 3£ inches,) 



\ herring M Y " 



bone. Method. 



No. of trees 30 30 



Average 'girth 3 feet from ground .. 24 in. 2li in. 

 (low often tapped .. Kvery alternate day 



for 12 months. 



Yield of dry rubber in 12 months .. 53£ lb, 53^ lb. 



Lb. per tree per annum . 1 J lb. lj lb. 



Average square inches excised per tree 2S7"4 i3S'l 

 do do do 



per tapping . . l - 64 2 - 14 

 one lb. of rubber requires excision 



of square inches of cortex .. 147 189 



Lb. per tree per tapping .. O'Oll O'OllS ! 



No. of tappings in 12 mouths .. lag 158 



Total square inches excised . . 7,834 10,141 



Thickness of each excision .. 1-15 in. 118 in. 



—Frank E. Lease, Manager, Sapong Estale. 



[The history of these trees is not without in- 

 terest. Some seven or eight years ago Mr C H 

 Keasberry, at that time District Officer, Tenom, 

 and in charge of the Gardens, received by post 

 a packet of seeds without any advice or intima- 

 tion of their nature. Assuming them to be 

 somo species of fruit with which ho was not 

 familiar, Mr Keasberry planted the seeds in a 

 nursery bed, and in due time planted some of 

 them out in the gardens, leaving a large number 

 in the nursery bed, where they can still be seen 

 growing in a large clump, surrounded by their 

 own seedlings. No further attention was paid 

 them beyond the ordinary routine weeding by 

 the garden coolies, and it was not till the rubber 

 "boom" reached Borneo a few years since, 

 that they were recognised as Para Rubber.] 

 -B. N. B. Herald. 



