290 
Coolies get about 37 rupe cents per day in Ceylon or 12 cents 
U. S. gold. In Malaya about 30 to 35 cents Straits 
Labor. Currency or 18 to 20 cents U. S. gold, and they work 
about 24 days, of 8 to 10 hours each, per month. Most 
of the coolies are Tamils, Javanese coming next in number, while 
the native Malays are employed principally in felling and clearing 
forests and in digging drains by contract. In Ceylon out of 
450,000 laborers employed in different industries, 400,000 come 
from India. The Tamil coolies do not expend very much on 
clothing and a great many of them manage to save money to 
remit to India. They are not a muscular people, having very 
slender arms and legs, but they can carry a greater weight on 
their heads than they are capable of lifting. In tapping rubber 
trees, the Tamils are very good as they are very quick and it is 
not hard work. The Javanese are good workers and also good 
at tapping. The women work in the fields as well as the men, 
but do not get as large wages. 
The output of a rubber plantation depends on the average age 
of the trees tapped. As the trees grow older the output will in- 
crease, but to what extent remains to be proved by experience. 
The output of one plantation in 1906 of 134,285 pounds 
increased in 1907 to 193,506 pounds from 84,278 trees tapped dur- 
ing that year or an average of over two pounds per tree. 
Their largest trees are 11 years old, but two-thirds of them 
were under six years old. 
This plantation was using the half herringbone system of tap- 
ping, the laterals going half way round the tree to the verticle 
cut on one side while the vertical cut on the opposite side drains, 
the lateral cuts from the other side of the tree. On the new trees 
that are coming into bearing they are using the single "V." A 
tapping is made every other day on some of the trees and every 
third day on others for a period of six weeks when the trees are 
rested for six months. There is an average of one tapping coolie 
to three acres and a carpenter's gouge is used for a tapping tool. 
CEARA RUBBER. 
Most of the remarks in reference to Hevea apply also to Ceara 
with some important exceptions. 
Twenty-three years ago Ceara was planted as shade for tea 
plants, but on account of inexperience in tapping and as the Ceara 
trees were not satisfactory as shade, they were, unfortunately, 
nearly all cut out. Ceara rubber trees can be planted and will grow 
well at higher elevations than Hevea. Most of the Ceara trees 
I examined were growing at an altitude of from 500 to 3,000 
feet above sea level. Ceara can be planted where the temperature 
