Gums, Resins, 



110 



for practical working. You find these gentlemen buried in paraphernalia— all 

 of which is absolutely necessary for the work to be done, We, however, are 

 not scientists, and have only to take over the net results where they leave off 

 We have no use for all the paraphernalia so necessary to these gentlemen. Rubber 

 tapping of the future is going to be no hobby. Go through the older estates which 

 are sending away their tons of rubber ; climb the hills where the work of our future 

 lies. You will not find coolies going about with the whole bag of tricks, 

 neither now, nor in the future. A good tapping knife and something to hold the 

 latex— nothing more is required. The cooly must do everything else ; he can and has 

 done it without the aid of chalk and measures, etc., etc. There is a photo of a herring- 

 bone pared tree in a recent publication. There is nothing very bad about it, it was 

 not a specially selected tree but only one of thousands. I think this is good enough. 



All our energy and spare cents must be devoted to protection of the cambium 

 Take care of the cambium and the latex will take care of itself. — Yours faithfully, 



G. H. GOLLEDGE. 



Rubber at Henaratgoda. — A Aveek ago we published an account of a 

 visit paid to the rubber plantation at Henaratgoda and the experiments being 

 carried out there. To-day Mr. G. H. Golledge Avrites an interesting critical letter 

 on several of the points raised in that article. His remarks are of service as 

 viewing the situation from the position of the busy, practical planter, compared 

 with the view of the scientist. Mr. Golledge's experience of the result of pol- 

 larding a 10 — 12 year old tree is of much value ; his tree after nearly two years 

 shows a gain in girth of If inches only, whereas a tree of the same age, growing 

 under similar conditions but unpollarded, shows a gain in girth of 4 inches. 

 Moreover, the unpollarded tree contains practically no latex ; so that his experi- 

 ment shows a negative result in pollarding 10 years old trees. The Henaratgoda 

 tree was pollarded "solely as an experiment,"' and was not recommended. Mr. 

 Golledge regards the tapping of the higher surfaces of the tree as of great im- 

 portance, and to which attention should be paid. We submit to him, however, 

 the probability of high tapping being more troublesome and requiring more 

 labour (an important point) ; and that if a practical method of obtaining an 

 equal amount of latex from the lower trunk be discovered, cceteris paribus, this 

 would be preferable to high tapping. It is, Ave believe, a fact that the latex 

 in the loAver trunk contains a greater percentage of caoutchouc and of better quality 

 than the higher portions. Mr. Golledge gives further remarks on the wintering of 

 trees and rubber in shavings, and has a Avord to say in thanks to the scientists who 

 are working in the planters' interests, which we cordially endorse. We heartily 

 agree with Avhat he says regarding the care of the cambium ; but surely there 

 is something required beyond a good tapping knife and a latex holder; there 

 must, Ave submit, be a proper system of tapping followed out and the more 

 economical and systematic this is, the better.— Ceylon Observer. 



II 



"All are Architects of Pate, 



" Working on the Walls of time ; 

 "Some with mighty Deeds and great, 



" Some with Ornaments of Rhyme." 



Longfellow. 



Sir.— Mr. Golledge, in his very practical letter of this day's date, is, I 

 think, a little hard on Mr. Herbert Wright. I take it that both Mr. Golledge 

 and Mr. Wright are Avorking on the same lines, viz., Avith a view to extracting 

 from a given finite number of rubber trees (Avithout injury) the maximum of 

 rubber in the chea -est possible way. Noav, Mr, Wright has distinctly stated 



