and Magazine of the Cey 



TAPPING OF YOUNG AND OLD 

 RUBBER. 



Kandyj March 27th. 



Deak Sir, — 1 Bend you extract from a letter 

 dated 25th, received Irom Mr J Anderson of 

 JBandarapola, which goes to support the conten- 

 tion of Mesers. Clayton, Beade & Stephens in 

 their summary arrived at in their last Report 

 to the Lanadron Rubber Estates :—" The qua- 

 lity of Rubber is not affected by the age of the 

 tree that yields the latex.'' 



Mr Anderson gees further and states that 

 young Cearas don't go and die like old ones 

 when they are tapped.— Yours faithfully, 



W. D. G. 



(Extract referred to). 



" In supporting what you were writing about 

 in the Observer the other day re Rubber taken 

 from young trees, I enclose for your perusal 

 and return Report on and selling Contract 

 for a small case of Ceara Rubber I sent home 

 in December. This Rubber was taken from 

 trees, self-sown seedlings, only two to three 

 years old, and at the sale it was said only two 

 or three marks got £d. higher. The proof of the 

 pudding is in the eating of it ! I might also add 

 that young Cearas don't go and die like old ones 

 when they are tapped." 



Extract from Messrs. Gow, Wilson & Stan- 

 ton's Report, dated 25th January, 1909. 1. Case 

 Biscuit No. 1. Description. Fine pale and palish 

 biscuits. The Rubber is strong, and in excellent 

 condition. Value 5/3d. per lb. 



Selling Cjntract. Bandarapola. I Case Rub- 

 ber Biscuits, Price 5/3d. per lb. 



t"W, D. G," returns to the charge fortified 

 with an expression of opinion by a planter, 

 whose views like his own carry weight. But if, as 

 Mr. Anderson says, the proof of the pudding is the 

 eating of it, how is it that the London brokers 

 — Messrs. Lewis & Peat particularly — year after 

 year advise the Ceylon planters to keep their 

 rubber from young trees separate from that 

 taken from mature trees ? They have evidently 

 tested young rubber and found it wanting. 

 All that Mr. Anderson says may be perfectly 

 correct ; but the fact that manufacturers paid a 

 high price for immature rubber is not likely to 

 soften their resentment if they find subsequently 

 that it does not contain the nerve and resi- 

 liency necessary for the goods to which it is de- 

 voted. We should very much like to see definite 

 experiments carried out and the opinion of 

 manufacturers — whose taste in the matter it is 

 we have to consider— secured on the point. 

 Could not half-a-dozen of the well-known Ceylon 

 rubber estates prepare samples from trees 6 to 10 

 years old and upward and from 3 to 4 years old 

 trees and submit them to some recognised autho- 

 rity to be tested ? This would satisfactorily 

 settle— once and for all— a very important point.] 



Agricultural Society. 403 

 THE NEW TAPPING SYSTEM. 



A reply: to criticisms. 



the chief indictment which has been levelled 

 against this system is, of course, that it encou- 

 rages the tapping of immature trees, and that, 

 in consequence, during the next few years a 

 large quantity of inferior rubber will be sent into 

 the market from Ceylon with, possibly, disas- 

 trous results to the reputation of the plantation 

 article. While it is pointed out that no one is 

 bound to use the system for this purpose, and 

 that the question of the age at which their 

 trees shall be tapped remains a matter 

 for the proprietors, at the same time the 

 claim made in the first circular issued, 

 namely, that the system will enable trees to 

 be profitably tapped at three years old, is ad- 

 hered to. It is one that is made on the grounds 

 both that a remunerative return can be obtained 

 from tapping three-year old trees, and that the 

 rubber is not inferior. Owing to the fact that 

 the latex is obtained, not by wound response, 

 as was the case under the old method, but by a 

 steady natural draining of the tree, it is asserted 

 that the product of the three-year old tree is 

 equal in quality to that of the five-year old tree 

 under the old Bystem. This is shown by the fact, 

 borne out by repeated experiment, that a quan- 

 tity of latex taken out of the tree by the new 

 system yields a considerably larger percentage 

 of dry rubber than the same quantity of latex 

 drawn by means of paring in the old fashion. 

 The same quantity of latex is yielded by 

 both systems, but it is found that the 

 latex obtained by the now system yields 

 a greater amount of rubber. This, it is 

 pointed out, supports the contention that the 

 new system, by a natural process of draining, 

 obtains the real latex in the cells, whereas by 

 wound response the tree was forced into yiel- 

 ding a liquid that contained very often mini- 

 mum amount of rubber. Moreover, by the old 

 process, portions of the tree were left entirely 

 untapped, whereas it can be easily demonstrated 

 that all the latex is attracted by natural filtra- 

 tion to one spot and the tree thoroughly drained 

 by the Northway system. Sheets of rubber 

 obtained from three-year-old trees by the new 

 system have been compared with those made 

 from the latex of five-year old trees extracted 

 by paring, and, as far as they can be tested by 

 all available methods, there is no difference in 

 the quality. The colour of the three -year old 

 rubber is good and there is no sign of resin. In 

 the same way it is claimed that the latex of five- 

 year old trees is equal to that obtained by the 

 old process from 7 year-old trees, etc., the new 

 system, so to speak, adding 2 years to the age 

 f the tree. 



The next point is the injury done to the trees. 

 One important point that has been forgotten by 

 some of the critics is that it has not been claimed 

 for the system that it increases the yield of the 

 tree. What has been asserted is that it yields 

 the same amount of rubber in half the time and 

 at half the cost. This result, as has been already 

 pointed out, is achieved because the natural 

 method of draining the laticiferous cells has 

 been discovered. For instance, 58 mature 



