105 



Sap's and Eieudatioris. 



and important point are given on page 50 of the latest hook on Para Rubber.) * 

 Planters do not seem to have yet realised what the result of this pollarding and 

 thumb-nail pruning, originally announced in the book referred to, means. It means 

 a year less to wait until the trees are ready to tap ; it means a return on capital 

 a year earlier and when prices are high ; it means tapping with safety 4 year 

 old trees ! 



Herring-bone and Spiral Tapping.— Meanwhile, tapping was going on on 

 the trees. At Henaratgoda the systems under careful experiment are the half 

 and full herring-bone and the half and full spiral— these are the only methods of 

 tapping yet evolved that are really economical and scientific, and of these the fidl 

 spiral, if carefully and properly done, is perhaps the best because the perfect shape 

 of the trunk is maintained. The trunk always swells and increases in girth where 

 tapped, and the best system is that which allows this growth in girth to be equal 

 all over the trunk. The planter who adopts spiral tapping must emphatically 

 insist on its being carried out in the very best manner, and in the long run the 

 extra care and trouble taken will be well repaid. Certainly the Henaratgoda trees 

 are a good example of careful and clean tapping. Tapping is done on different lots 

 of trees every day, every alternate day, twice per week, and once per month. 



"In tapping," began the Scientist, "it is necessary only to shave off the 

 very thinnest paring, just to re-open the milk tubes which are already swollen 

 through the phenomenon of wound response." In the outer bark of the tree there 

 is no rubber at all, nearly all the milk tubes lie in the young growing bark close 

 to the cambium, and these tubes are just pierced in tapping ; the cut must not 

 even go right through the young bark and certainly should not go down to or expose 

 the cambium. 



" Remember this," said the Scientist, and he held up a menacing finger at the 

 Planter — " the first time you tap the tree spirally it must be done very lightly — 

 we'll examine your first attempts presently— for though it's a perfectly sound method, 

 there is no doubt that if any system of tapping will kill a tree the full spiral wi 

 In fact I have on a certain estate killed out trees in a too densely planted estate by 

 tapping hard on the full spiral system from the base up to 30 ft. high. Your object 

 is to cut away the bark as slowly as possible, and we have had excellent results here. 

 These trees have been tapped for three months— tapped twice per week using the 

 knife and the pricker alternately— and as you see, we have worked through one inch 

 of bark, that is 4 inches per annum, or a foot in 3 years. By pricking twice to each 

 time the knife is used this could be further improved ; that is, we strip the bark of 

 the tapping area once in from three to six years. As you see on this tree the renewed 

 bark is already almost on a level with the original bark, and is again full of milk in 

 only three months. So that in three years, or more, when it will be tapped again, it 

 wili be old bark." 



These results are certainly astonishing, and it can now be no matter for doubt 

 that 6 lb. per tree and more per annum can be obtained from many trees ten years 

 old that have been reasonably looked after. For it must be remembered that at 

 Henaratgoda the trees are uncultivated trees, and not growing in particularly 

 good soil. 



But our attention was attracted to various lofty trees against which some 

 pretty substantial scaffolding was erected. A cooly was mounting one ; carrying 

 a knife too, and yes ! why, he's actually tapping at 30 ft. high ! One could 

 hardly believe it at first. Tapping at 30 ft. up after all that has been written and 

 said in the last twenty years about tapping only the first six feet of the trunk ! 



* Hcvea Brasiliensis or Parct Rubber by Herbert Wright. Published by A. M. & J. 

 Ferguson, Colombo, 



