82 
RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 
acres of Hevea, we drove by the coffee mill, and the coolie lines to the 
extreme end of Lowlands, where the very last planting had been done. 
This was in alluvial soil divided up into parallelograms by drains that 
were four to five feet wide and from three to six feet deep, lhe soil 
was wonderfully rich and was not planted with Hevea seeds but three 
foot stumps, as the seeds and the tender shoots have so many animal 
and insect enemies that stumping is far more successful. These stumps 
are nursery plants cut back into the brown, set out carefully and never 
shaded. Not only is the top cut back, but the tap root is shortened a 
bit to prevent doubling, and the laterals are also trimmed a little. 
This planting is done in any month of the year when the rains are 
on. In preparing, the ground holes are dug fifteen to eighteen inches 
MR. bailey's bungalow, klang. 
in diameter and about the same number of inches deep, the hole being- 
left open for two weeks, after which a little of the surface soil is scraped 
in. Then the plant is set and carefully covered in. The trees that are 
ready for tapping are selected, not by their age but from their size. 
For a general rule any Hevea that is thirty inches in circumference, three 
feet from the ground, is large enough to produce rubber. In a planta- 
tion in a good location in this part of the world, the trees mature about as 
follows: At the end of the fifth year about 25 per cent, will 
be large enough to tap ; at the sixth year there will be 5 ° P er 
and at the seventh all of them should be big enough. 
