and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



they force the instrument accordingly. There 

 is, therefore, a continual peril of reaching 

 and penetrating the wood and setting up the ac- 

 cumulations of uureleased rubber which forces 

 the bark away from the tree and sets up " bark 

 rot," as a Kalutara Superintendent describes it 

 elsewhere. Mr. Williamson emphasizes the fact, 

 which the valiant defenders of the North way 

 system would do well to note, that all rubber 

 planters would prefer the Deviturai methods, 

 because of their simplicity, if they afforded 

 an equal yield and freedom from disease 

 with no higher cost of upkeep. Referring 

 again to the following letter from Kalutara dis- 

 trict, we see Mr. R. J. Booth's case of sub-cor- 

 tical'rubber pads, where tapping had been done 

 with the knife, is explained by attributing it to 

 decomposition of the laticiferous cells due to 

 Bark Rot, which in the early days of tapping 

 often resulted from the use of a scraper instead 

 of the more careful paring now practised. He 

 differentiates the pads formed by the new sys- 

 tem as being entirely due to the essential action 

 of the pricker itself, Furthor, he points out 

 that the quality of work done by the cooly 

 under the new system is impossible to check : 

 that it requires men of very good physique if it 

 is to be applied to mature trees with, say, bark 

 three-quarters of an inch thick. As matters at 

 present stand, it seems that the use of the knife 

 in tapping is still the best, though the ideal 

 system both to work and check may have yet 

 to be discovered. 



III. 



Eagles Land, Neboda, June 10th. 

 Dear Sir,— Mr R J Booth, in a previous 

 letter, stated that the pad found in one of his 

 trees was due to tapping in February when the 

 trees were wintering and the remedy was cutting 

 away th6 bark. In this case I should be in- 

 clined to think that the pad was formed by the 

 decomposition of the laticiferous cells due to 

 "Bark rot." But in the case of pads formed by 

 the new system the pricker must not be held 

 responsible though its faults are ivell-known. 



In the early days when tapping— say, hacking 

 the cambium — was considered a novelty, clea- 

 ning the stem by a scraper — similar to sweat 

 scrapers — was one of the processes involved in 

 that system. Some of the coolies did this work 

 judiciously under my personal supervision and 

 some, where I was not in touch with them, did 

 it as they liked. Those trees that were badly 

 scraped so as to irritate the cortical cells in dry 

 months got weaker and bark dried up in patches 

 with the result that they got " Bark rot " with 

 accumulations of dried latex— ov rubber pads, as 

 they are termed now. 



I am, therefore, inclined to think from the ex- 

 planation given by Mr North way that the 

 formation of rubber pads by using his system was 

 due to scraping the stem. 



As regards the new system, I do not think it 

 has any advantages over the established paring 

 system. What check have you on the quality of 

 work done by the cooly ? He can dig into the 

 wood with the pricker as deep as he can and 

 yet will come forward as an A 1 tapper and get 



his 40 cents a day. It will take year's to find out 

 the mischief done by him and by that time he 

 gets his tundu and walks of!'. 



Surely, it requires giant's strength to force the 

 blunt teeth of the pricker into matured bark 

 | in. thick. Paring is now done by boys, girls, 

 women and shuck coolies ; in fact, by all coolies 

 who can neither prune nor handle a mamoty 

 or an alavangoe, but mature trees under the 

 new system require men of very good physique. 



As regards yield, a set of 2 coolies by paring 

 an my system bring in (10) ten lb. of dry rubber 

 (o lb. each) a day from Id. 5 mature trees 12 years 

 old. This is the maximum at present. , Where 

 the trees are scattered, mixed with 20 in trees, 

 the minimum they bring is four lb. dry rubber 

 (2 lb. each). It must be understood, when con- 

 sidering tue yield, that the rubber trees on this 

 estate are all planted through tea. A system 

 that is easy to work and to check with good 

 results will be a boon. — Yours faithfully, 



T L. SRINIVASAUAM. 



A Well-known V. A.'s Opinion. 

 Mr J P Anderson, the Kelani Valley Visiting 

 Agent, seen by a representative of the Ceylon 

 Observer and asked what effect he thought 

 the new tapping system would have on rubber 

 trees said he could not yet say as they were 

 still experimenting with it. He did not quite 

 like it up to date, but he had not given up 

 all hope of it because ho had not givenit a long 

 enough trial. He wanted several monthstotry it. 



LESS HARM WITH A PRICKER. 



Asked whether he thought it could be regu- 

 lated equally as well as the ordinary knife tap- 

 ping systems, Mr Anderson said he certainly 

 did, Less harm was done with a pricker than 

 with a knife. It was known exactly where 

 the latex lay, next to the cambium, and 

 to get at it they had to cut as near the 

 cambium as possible and there was a very 

 great danger in cutting to that depth. What 

 he liked about the pricker was that they could, 

 with the knife, make a shallow incision and 

 then get the latex out with the pricker. He was 

 of opinion that out of an equal number of 

 trees far more had been damaged with the knife 

 than with the pricker. 



THE HALF-SPIRAL SYSTEM. 



In answer to a query as to what methods 

 of tapping he had found most satisfactory so 

 far Mr Anderson said that up to date he liked 

 the half spiral. 



Mr. Williamson's Letter. 

 Mr. Williamson's letter, which appears on 

 the previous pages, was then shown to Mr. 

 Anderson who, after reading it, said it was 

 quite right, he quite approved of it. 



Mr T Petch, Government Mycologist, to our 

 contemporary recently said that black patches 

 and the rubber pads " depend on whether the 

 pricker goes through the cambium into the 

 wood. If you can prick without touching the 

 cambium, you will not get either of the5>e symp- 

 toms. It is impossible for the rubber pad to 



