622 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[March i, 1898. 
elapses before they are planted should not under any 
circumstances be longer than a week, and if they can 
be planted before this so much the better. Sown at 
once nearly all germinate, but each day which inter- 
venes increases the number of failures till, at the ex- 
piration of ten days or so, none grow, The trees are 
very prolific seed bearers. Those in the Museum 
grounds have this year yield nearly 14,000 seed — or, to 
speak more correctly, that number have been collected. 
At 15 by 15 feet, 14,000 seed would be enough to 
plant 72§ acres of land. Where the land is ready it is 
certainly an advantage to plant the seed at stake, but 
where this cannot be done not much loss would follow 
planting in nurseries and then transplanting. The 
thing to avoid in this method is the production of 
double stems near the ground, caused by the original 
shoot dying out or being broken off. In the first few 
years a little judicious pruning would prevent this 
tendency to throw' up more than one stem. In other 
respects they do not require any xjruniug, nor after the 
first few years any attention at all except a little clean- 
ing with a parang. The trees are vigorous growing and, 
have such thick foli.age that they would soon cover the 
ground and effctually keep oat all weeds and scrub. 
Many methods have been suggested and tried for 
tapping the trees, but what may be called the herring- 
bone method appears to have advantages over the 
others. This is the way the Ipoh trees are tapped by 
the wild tribes of Perak and it is also used by the 
Malayas for tapping trees yielding bird lime etc. The 
American rubber collectors also adopt the same method 
for tapping Castilloa. In 1888-9 the trees, Para and 
Castillea, at Kuala Kangsar were tapped by herring- 
bone cuts by Malays. 
On 5th July, a rubber tree in the Museum grounds 
w’as tapped by a herring-bone incision in the bark of 
the trunk about i inch wide and reaching dow’n to the 
wood. The cuts were widened several times to ulti- 
mately about ig an inch. By the 7th October, the cuts 
were closed up with a new growth of bark. Three 
months is therefore sufficient for the covering over of 
i inch wide outs made right down to the wood. The 
last places to heal over were those where the side cuts 
met the vertical one. Here, of course, the width 
of exposed wood was considerably more than half an 
inch. The best way of carrying out the herring-bone 
method of tapping is a matter of much importance, 
as on it depends the cost of the collection of the 
rubber. Common knives, chisels, chopping knives, 
purning knives, etc., are quite unsuited to the work, 
so I devised an implement for scoring the bark 
which apparently answers the purpose in a 
satisfactory manner. The handles are made like a 
boat-builder’s draw knife, but the cutting blade is 
shaped like the letter U and fixed by a suitable set 
screw or wedge in the bar joining the handles and in 
the same line with them. In cutting a herring-bone 
incision the knife is taken in both hands by the 
handles and a long vertical cut made in the bark, but 
not so deep as to reach the sap layer. The blade 
ploughs out a furrow having the same section as itself 
and of a depth corresponding to-the inclination at 
which the instrument is held in relation to the surface 
of the bark; the set of the handies giving complete 
control over the direction of ti e blade. The side 
cuts may then be made to the same depth. 
Having gone so far and having cleaned away 
all the loose cuttings of outler baik, the re- 
ceptacle for catching the sap may be fixed 
at the lower en 3 of the vertical score, and then begin- 
ning from the top of the cut it may by a second applica- 
tion of the tool be deepened to the proper extent. 
By following this procedme waste of rubber may be 
avoided to a large extent and a cleaner product 
obtained. The s.aine instrument can of course be 
used to enlarge ihe scores for the subsequent 
tappings. The scoring knife will, 1 think, be found 
to quite hnlve the time in tapping the trees and dertha 
work in a much better fashion as well. The recepta- 
cles for catching tlio sap can conveniently be made 
as follows. A tin can is fitted with a sort of slmrp 
straight-edged lip at one side and a hinged lid to keep 
out fragments of bark, rain water, etc., and it is best 
and quickest hung ou to the tree by a couple of 
attached wires furnished with sharpened hook points. 
In this way there is nothing required by the collec- 
tor but his scoring knife and* tins. He w'ants 
neither nails, hammers, wet clay, knives, chisels or 
the other things now in use. Mr. J. C. Willis, Direc- 
tor of the Royal Botanical Gardens, is trying a 
method of tapping ; with small detached Y-shaped 
incisions, made with two outs of a chisel having a 
svide blade of about an inch in breadth. These cuts I 
find heal up in a very short time and do little damage 
to the tree, but it is lioubtful if they will yield as 
much rubber as the native herring-bone shaped cuts. 
Mr. Willis informs me his experiments are not yet 
complete. 
Some years back an instrument for tapping was 
recommended of the following description. Apiece 
of wook about au inch broad and a foot or more long 
had the central portion set with sharp steel spikes 
like the hair of a brush. It was to betaken in both 
hands by the ends, which served as handles, and the 
spikes pressed into the bark, producing a series of 
punctures through to the wood. On trial in Perak, 
on the Kuala Kangsar trees, it was found that 
although the sap flowed when it was applied in fair 
qu/iutities, it stopped almost at once, as the holes 
quickly became sealed up by the coagulation of the 
sap within them. — Malay Mail, Jan. 19. 
Taiping, 4th Dec. 1897. 
<»» 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA. 
We have received the following notice with reference 
to last season’s coffee sales. The coffee in question 
was grown by Mr. S. Israel on the Chipande estate. 
Messrs. Garner <6 Co., have written as follows to Mr. 
Israel The prices for your coffee sold are most 
satisfactory: in fact that is the best sale that has ever 
come under our notice of British Central Africa coffee, 
and we must congratulate you on the very excellent 
turnout. The average price obtained of lOOs per cwt, 
the lowest, 15 bags, 78s par cwt, the highest, bags. 
114s per cwt. 
CALOTROPIS PROCERA AND GIGANTEA 
Liotard, in his pamphlet “ Materials in India 
suitable to the manufacture of paper’’ says, that 
“ in the Punjab the fibre is available from the 
branches of C. procera by cutting down the largest 
branches in October and November or April and 
May, or the periods when the rnuddar blossoms and 
just before it ripens its seed.” The plants, wherever 
1 have observed them, seemed to be almost in per- 
petual blossom and the fibre, if I remember aright 
in Sind is available from C. procera all the year 
round. Of Thana lam notin a position yet to speak; 
but I may mention that I have extracted the fibre 
from C. (jiyantea when not in blossom. Whether the 
fibre extracted is of use or not commercially I cannot 
say, but there seems no difference in its quality. I 
may satisfy those like Mr. Gleadow, however, who 
possess qualms of conscience as to the quality of C. 
ijiyanica aiid C. procera being equally good, by saying 
that Mr. Macdonald the expert who experimented with 
C. gigantea fibre in November last in the Konkan 
declared it to be excellent. I had sent home specimens 
of C. procera fibre to his firm and it was entirely 
owing to the excellence of the quality of this fibre 
that Mr. Macdonald was induced to come out to 
India. 
Apart from this if authoi ities such a Dalzell (Bom- 
bay Flora in 1861, page 14 ); Drury, (Useful Plants of 
India 1873, page It’l); Liotard and Royle, (Fibrous 
Plants of India 185,5 pp. 306 to 3 U), are consulted, 
the assertion that the fibre of both plants is equally 
good will, it is thought, be found to be confirmed. 
The only questions to be solved, I think, now are, 
whether tliere is sufficiently large quantity of the fibre 
available from C. procera and 0. glriantea in their 
natural stale to render it marketable in various parts 
of India and if not whether there are areas which can 
be taken in hand for the artificial production of the 
plants, and whether any machine will extract the fibre 
