194 



[Septembe r, 1911 



GUMS, RESINS, SAPS AND EXUDATIONS. 



FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF 

 THE HAWAIIAN GROWERS' 

 ASSOCIATION. 



(From the Hawaiian Forester and Agri- 

 culturist, Vol. VIII., No. 3, March, 1911.) 



On January 23, 1911, in the rooms of 

 the Chamber of Commerce, in Honolulu, 

 was held the Fourth Annual Meeting of 

 the Hawaiian Rubber Growers' Associ- 

 ation. After opening remarks by the 

 President, Mr. F. L. Waldron, Mr. W. A. 

 Anderson, manager of the Nahiku Rub- 

 ber Company was called upon for an 

 address. 



Address of Mr. W. A. Anderson. 



Mr. Anderson's subject was the "Re- 

 sults of Tapping." His address, in part, 

 is as follows : — 



" We had very little data on the com- 

 mercial tapping of Ceara trees, because 

 practically no work had been done, and 

 therefore we started more or less inde- 

 pendently at the beginning. At present, 

 however, there is quite a good deal of 

 tapping of Ceara trees in South America 

 and South Africa, reports of which are 

 available from time to time, and they 

 are of assiscance to us. 



"We are now tapping Ceara trees by 

 making a vertical channel up to a height 

 of about five or six feet, the spout being 

 inserted at the bottom. Then on one 

 side we make diagonal cuts about six 

 inches apart, beginning at a point six 

 inches above the spout and leading into 

 the vertical channel. On the other side 

 of the channel similar vertical cuts are 

 made half way between those first made, 

 each cut extending a quarter of the way 

 around the tree. In this manner one- 

 half of the circumference of the tree is 

 being tapped. At the next tapping 

 these diagonal cuts, but not the vertical 

 channel, are pared on the lower side, 

 removing a strip of bark about a third 

 of an inch wide. At the third tapping 

 this new cut is pricked along its upper 

 edge, and at the fourth it is pricked 

 along its lower edge ; after which it is 

 again pared and pricked in the same 

 manner, so that one paring is followed 

 by two prickings, making one paring in 

 every three tappings. 



"This system was evolved after trying 

 paring alone, pricking alone and prick- 

 ing at the same time. Pricking is more 

 rapid than paring, and gives larger 

 returns for a given amount of labour. 

 The paring alone gives a profitable yield. 

 The fewer parings, as compared with 



the number of prickings, the better, and 

 while the paring alone gives a profitable 

 yield, the pricking done as described 

 gives a better yield. After the outer 

 bark has been removed a new and tough 

 bark soon forms, which makes pricking 

 alone unprofitable in a few weeks after 

 the bark is removed. 



For Best Results. 

 "For best results tapping should be 

 done during the first few days after the 

 bark is removed, for the reason that 

 otherwise the latex cells appear to dry 

 up with the action of the air and soon 

 wither, If the trees are not tapped 

 during these first few days, they should 

 not be tapped till after several weeks. 

 Hence, before the tree can be thoroughly 

 tapped, the new bark will have reached 

 the stage where pricking cannot well be 

 accomplished. For this reason, removing 

 the bark by paring over a space only 

 wide enough to prick in the next two or 

 three days, proves better than removing 

 all the bark at once and then trying to 

 prick for a long series. Also by using 

 the paring knife as above described — not 

 going too deep— profitable tapping is 

 made while removing the bark. 



" Of course, objections have been made 

 to pricking, but objections have also 

 been made by good authorities to paring, 

 and would be made to any method of 

 extraction- The only course open to 

 us is to find the method that looks best, 

 and, if it has not already been proven 

 objectionable, use it until it is shown to 

 be so. It was thought at one time that 

 pricking was responsible for injury 

 suffered by some of the trees in a series 

 of tappings last year, but later experi- 

 ence has brought the conviction that 

 not the pricking, as pricking, but the 

 removal of bark at that time was 

 chiefly responsible, aided, no doubt, by 

 the rather severe tapping that closely 

 followed. 



The system outlined here may be 

 rather severe, In a herring-bone with 

 diagonals only six inches apart, the top 

 of one cut extends above the lowest 

 point in the cut above the lowest point 

 in the cut next above it, and for this 

 reason must interfere somewhat with 

 the horizontal movement of materials in 

 the bark. This objection, however, 

 would be stronger in the case of the 

 vertical cuts, and as the flow of mate- 

 rials in the bark is chiefly up and down 

 or diagonally across, it is rather diffi- 

 cult to determine what strength this 

 objection would have. Also, since the 



