726 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [May 1, 1908. 
climate here is dry, and the trees do not make any- 
thinft like the wood which those nearer the coast do." 
The 3ame thing occurs in many places, especially 
in the drier parts of Cape Colony, where, i£ irrigation 
is irregular, or not practised at all, the crops of 
good fruits are enormous from trees which in spring 
are too dried oat to send sap to the points of the 
branches, and consequently fruit on spurs lower 
down. In such case, too, fewer twigs are prcilacei, 
and consequently abundaot air is admitted to all 
parts of the tree. It will be seen then that N vture 
in some cases prunes or checks to a considerable 
degree, and each orchardist has to study his own 
conditions and his own kinds in deciding whether 
or not he will prune. (All this, of course, refers to 
deciduous fruit trees only, and does not apply to 
citrus or other evergreen kinds, in which the treat- 
ment is different^. But "pruning" is a wide term 
and is understood diffsrently by different growers. 
(1) The most advanced orchardists believe in a 
totally artificial tree, which is made, and continues 
to be such, simply through the unremitting attention 
paid to it in the mtter of pruning, though much 
of that pruning is done with the thumb nail rather 
than with the knife, i.e-, summer regulation of the 
young green shoots, to such an extent as to fully 
mature, by free contact with fresh air every shoot 
that is left. 
(2) Others, again, believe in pruning soientifioally 
only for the first three or four years, that is, until 
the tree has assumed the desired shape, and there, 
after doing only a limited amount of pruning, es- 
peoially if, as often happens. Nature assists by 
means of drought, hail, or other causes. 
(3) Others again do not prune at all when the 
trees are young, but in nfter years saw out heavy 
branches and thereby adm> air. 
Of these various raethoJ; the flcst is distinctly 
the most profitable where climatic and soil conditions 
are altogether favourable, and where skilled labour 
is always obtainable at reasonable cost. The six 
Europeans of Mr. Symons could not do everything 
in 30 acres of orchard on these lines, and it then 
comes to be a debatable subject whether additional 
skilled labour will pay better than by adopting the 
second method, in which dwarfing stocks and natural 
cheeks do a good deal of the work after the first few 
years. In commercial orchard work skilled pruning 
usually pays, but it is no uncommon case also to find, 
taking all the surrounding conditions and circum- 
stances into consideration, that skilled abstention 
from pruning pays better than unskilled pruning. 
The third method suits the man who grows his 
firewood in his apple trees, at the expense of his 
crop, and who does not have sufficient skill or suffi- 
cient energy to do anything better. He is satisfied 
with second-rate fruit, in small quantity, and uses 
six acres to produce what one acre should do, and 
then gets lowest prices. Still it is the method used 
almost exclusively in all the cider and jam producing 
orchards in England and New England; it is a low- 
grade method, producing inferior fruit suitable only 
for low-grade industries and often unsuitable for 
market, but it pays the man whose low-gra^e ability 
would oust him altogether from the production of 
first-class market fruit. 
For the production of flrsfc-rate market fruit one -or 
other of the first two methods must be used, sur- 
rounding circumstances deci'ling in each case which 
it has to be, but in a general way it may be said 
that scientific pruning is the more successful coast- 
ward, or on low alluvial valleys, while on high and 
fairly dry ridges and where labour is unobtainable 
the second method mikes a fairly good snbstitnf.e. 
I trust no one will construe this into an excuse for 
slovenly negligence of necessary pruning ; I also 
trust that your correspondent w II see that there is 
loom for debate as to how ranch pruning should be 
done, and in some places whether any at all should 
be done beyond producing the form of the tree at 
the Btart. 
It is evident that market fruit cannot be success- 
fully gathered from trees 70 feet high, but it is also 
as evident that where Nature and kind of stock keep 
the trees reasonably dwarf and productive of full 
crops of good fruit upon stem-«pnrs, v«ry lit'le, if 
any, pruning is v)a,atedi.~Natal Agricultural Journal. 
4» 
PREPARING " PAfl-\ RUBBER " 
IN OBYLON. 
" To the Editor of the India JRuhber World." 
1 have much pleasure in complying with your re- 
quest for full particulars as to the method of col- 
lecting and coagulating rubber, up to th^ time of 
despatch for market, employed on the Kepitigalia 
estate [at Matale, Caylon]. After consi^eiable ex- 
perience, with several methods employed in other 
parts of the globe, I think there is none other equal 
to the one adopted in Ceylon, and if this were used 
in other countries it certainly would mean a rise 
in prise of at least 6 pence a pound for rubber. 
The tool employed for tapping rubber trees on this 
estate is not equalled by any other in use, for its 
clean cut and absolutely safe incision, the tree not 
being damaged in the least. The shape is indicated 
by an accompanying cut. 
Tool for incising Rubber Tree. 
In practice both hands are used to hold the wooden 
handle. Placing the corner of the angle B at the 
start of the cut, the tool is pulled downward two 
or three times in the same incision, care being 
taken not to cut into the wood. Though this may 
seem difficult at the beginning, a little practice will 
soon make the work easy. After two cuts have 
been made, converging in the shape of the letter 
V. another labourer places a small tin cup at the 
lower point of the V. Care should be taken that 
at this point the two cuts do not run together, but 
that a small space be left between them. The in- 
cisions should be about 4 inches long, with a space 
of at least 3 inches between them at the top. d?he 
same space (3 inches^ should be left before begin- 
ning the next pair of incisions in going around the 
tree. This is absolutely necessary, for if the cuts 
join, the flow of sap to the tree will cease, and 
the tree will die. The first series of incisions 
should be made as far up the tree as a person stand- 
ing on the ground can reach. Every second day a 
new band of incisions may be made lower down, 
as indicated in the drawing. About twenty rings 
or bands of incisions can be made around a tree 
within a distance of six feet from the ground. About 
five V shaped incisions may be made around a tree 
40 inches in circumfrence. 
The tin cup used are 
Stfjy^ %'.i/r.ri\;;'rr,y,iH',n about two inches in flia- 
^t:i!'^^Vi''^'':^^'''I0fl meter and two in d('ptb. 
V !';_i^*\>t^ As the latfx flows imme- 
]^i^-^^'^}^nl^M^'i('<' diately after the cms are 
^M^ii^^Y^i:'/^^?^-^ ^^^^> tapper's assist- 
f^!lH''<'4'?'"^^V'*5''i5»^ once presses the 
*f^ii-^) nPT'J^'t edge of a tin cop into 
/':''^v';'l;;ij!'''!;!FS i'l!.'''-''' the bark, no nails or putty 
; 1 1; :;' ' i ;' or wax being required to 
hold it in place. A third 
\ .7; - 1 . V ' j labourer.follows with a pail 
' ° water, putting a small 
quantity into each tin to 
Incision with tin prevent the latex from 
attached. coagulating— a very ne- 
cessary precaution, es- 
pecially on a hot day Tlie.Itapping as above des- 
cribed ia done early in the morning, and in this- 
