820 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [June 1, 1904. 
PARA RUBBSR IN CEYLON. 
A VISIT TO KALLTTARA ESTATES. 
(Special to the " Tropical Agriculturist") 
The present interest in rubber-growing in Ceylon 
is no doubt due to the high prices which rubber 
has been fetching lately on the London market and 
the possibility of its becoming one of Ceylon's most 
important products, seriously rivalling, if not 
even eventually ousting tea in many of the low- 
country districts. Indeed, it is not beyond the 
range of possibility that in the future rubber 
planting may quite take the place of tea in the low- 
country and Ceylon become the country of high- 
priced high- grown teas only, leaving the pro- 
ducing of cheap teas entirely to other lands. Be 
that as it may, my present subject is rubber ; and 
it is now an established fact that Ceylon can produce 
this wonderful vegetable product in quality second 
to none ; and we are assured by both scientific 
experts and business men in all branches of the 
trade that there is not the slightest feai of over- 
production. That supply creates demand, is in many 
cases an axiom ; but in regard to India-rubber 
the demand, an ever-increasing one too, is there and 
it is the supply of material that the manufacturers 
want. The more rubber available and the greater 
the supply, the more numerous, doubtless, will 
be the demands for it and the usages to which 
it will be put. 
The interest in rubber, especially the production 
ot it in its natural state, being a personal one, I 
resolved to pay a visit to the estates myself at 
the earliest opportunity, and had planned my re- 
cent visit to Kalutara when most opportunely 
Mops. Octave Collet sgain arrived in Ceylon 
and I was greatly pleased when he suggested 
our going together. Hence the following visit. 
Mr Collet is an expert in rubber and this gave 
additional interest to the trip; and it must be ac- 
knowledged that a considerable amount of " shop" 
was talked, allhoughhehad plenty tosayon a host of 
other matters, being a travelled man in the East. 
But space is valuable; 1 will plunge in medias res. 
Leaving Colombo by the morning train three of 
us M Collet, M E Lippeus, his private secretary, 
and myself, armed with cameras, went down to 
Kalutara South. At the station we were fortunate 
in at once securing the services of a pony and 
trap, and thus were spared the pains of travelling 
some dozen or so miles in bullock hackeries, 
although our "muttu" proved himself a thorough 
ass ! I learnt much en route concerning rubber 
production in other parts, but this will keep for 
another time. The road passed between cinnamon 
plantations, the properties of native growers, also 
a few small native-owned tea estates; but as soon 
as we were passing Clyde estate we noticed the 
first rubber trees, Hevea Brasiliensis, planted 
amongst the pruned tea, and these were the first 
signs that we were entering the rubber region. 
Yearling trees planted among the tea were numerous 
but our attention was suddenly drawn to 
A SPLENDID GROUP OF HEVEAS 
in a sheltered grove below the oad on the left. 
These were fine, well-developed trees and the first 
tapped ones to be seen, This plantation • was 
Arapolakande, at d we halted and paid a brief 
visit to the manager, Mr. H. V. Bagot, who wel- 
comed us at his bungalow and supplied very 
appreciated " diinks." There is a good deal oi 
Para (under which name I allude to Eevea hrazi. 
liensis) on the estate and a clearing, which we had 
noted in passing, of some 43 acres is being planted 
with rubber only ; Mr. Bagot showed us a fir«t. 
rate sample biscuit of his rubber. Further along 
the- main road, as we enter Culloden, were some 
good nurseries where the seedling Heveas looked 
A 1, planted thickly in raised beds some 6 feet 
wide. Porcupines do a deal of damage to the 
nurseiy plants, walking through the beds and 
cutting down the plants as they pass, with their 
sharp teeth. They also do considerable harm among 
planted out stumps, cutting them through cleanly 
as it were with a knife ; and at certain seasons of 
the year they appear to take a liking to the bark 
of the older trees, chipping it ofif from the ground 
upwards as far as they can reach, possibly liking 
the latex. On some estates R5 per head is offered 
for porcupines to the natives. Knowing the con- 
ditions under which Para rubber trees grow in 
Amazonia, it was very surprising to see clearings 
on precipitous rocky hillsides with scattered boul- 
ders all over them planted up with young Para. 
I must say that even in the rockiest situations 
a 1 the young trees looked in good eoni"?ition and 
flourishing— indeed, if any tiling, they seemed on 
the whole better than some of the plantations in 
alluvial surface soil in the valleys. 
ROCKY CLEARINGS AND STONY WATERCOURSES. 
The trees planted in these rocky clearings and 
in stony watercourses astonished M. Collet and 
he took several photos of them. Passing Culloden 
factory we were soon at Mr. li W Harrison's bun- 
galow where during breakfast a considerable 
amount of " shop " was talked. 
THE NEW " C. C." TAPPING-KNIFE. 
Mr Collet's new tapping-knife was examined and 
amused .interest, and Mr Mgicadam, of Heatherley 
estate, quickly suggested an improvement for 
making the knife self-adjusting. Let me here ex- 
plain the knife. It is entirely of metal ; running 
down the handle, and coming out at the base, is 
a bluntly-pointed piece which is inserted in the 
bark of a tree to be tapped and by this means 
the depth of the bark is measured ; tiie blade of 
the knife, which is like a sharp, curved gouge, 
has on it a brass support which is set at an angle 
with the blade and — before cutting — is adjusted at 
an angle, so that when the knife is in use and the 
brass support resting against the bark, the cut 
can only go as deep as it is set for, which is the 
depth of the bark measured at first ; by this means 
the laticiferous cells are reached, but the cambium 
of the tree is not cut. For the first time since 
invented, M. Collet used the knife on a fresh 
untapped tree ; it gave clean, straight cuts just 
reaching the latex-bearing cells, and the inventor's 
expectations were evidently fully satisfied. A 
little further down amongst the tea we came to 
the four big trees, 
CEYLON'S OLDEST IIEVEAS, 
the subjects of Mr Harrison's recent experiments. 
These huge trees were well scarred all over with 
the marks of former tappings and we could see 
where different methods of tapping had been tried 
— the " herring-bone " system, the V-shaped inci- 
sions, and the oblique cut with its pared side at 
present in vogue. Scaffolding surrounded each tree 
CO enable the coolies to reach the higher tapping 
surfaces of the trunks. These old trees in 
splendid bearing prove conclusively that the fine 
flourishing condition of Para rubber trees in Ceylon 
is not only during the early age of the plants but 
that the^ will grow here to maturity and 
