444 
which compares favourably with the results of the previous year, 
when this form of wastage amounted to as much as 9 per cent., and 
which proves that some factor was present in the season’s opera- 
tions which tended to raise the quality of the raw outturn obtained. 
10. The cuts were made horizontal or only slightly oblique, it 
Direction in which being noticed that the wounds bled in propon- 
ents should be made. lion to their horizontal direction, and that any 
considerable deviation from this direction resulted in a slower and 
reduced flow' of rubber. Experiments on untapped trees were made 
personally by the Conservator with the view of testing this point, 
arrow shaped (the Brazilian method), oblique as well as horizontal 
cuts being made, when it was very apparent that the latex flowed 
far more freely from the last kind than from either of the others. 
No examination of the bark or bast has yet been made to test the 
cause of this observed fact, which is not in agreement, it is believed, 
with experiments made elsewhere on rubber yielding trees and 
plants of other species. But an enquiry wall be instituted with the 
help of Dr. Watts, the Government Economic Reporter, and the 
Director of the Forest School, with the view of obtaining informa- 
tion on the point. In the meantime, it seems safe to hazard the 
opinion that the rubber cells must be placed in more or less vertical 
rows, and that, in fact, in arrangement they resemble somewhat an 
arterial system, when it will be readily understood w'hy a horizontal 
cut must be much more effective in tapping their contents than a 
vertical or oblique cut of equal length. 
1 1. Another point was tested at the same time by the Conser- 
vator, which perhaps helped to create the 
Rubber residuum and opinion that the tapping operations, as per- 
wastage discussed. fo \ med i n T 898-99, were of an unnecessarily 
careless or wasteful nature. Allusion is here made to the fact that, 
when the rubber is stripped from the cuts, a milky, and sometimes 
copious, residuum runs out of the wounds dow-n the tree, and as no 
arrangement is made to collect this overflow', the impression may 
have been carried away that it represented wastage. But the Con- 
servator was able to prove to his satisfaction that this residuum, 
which closely resembles rubber milk in appearance, contains no 
caoutchouc, and is capable of being practically absorbed by blotting 
paper or of being evaporated in the sun. In fact, it consists practi- 
cally of little else than water and contributes no appreciable pro- 
portion of the true w astage, which seems to be w'holly represented 
bv that portion of the latex which spurts out of the wound during 
the actual process of tapping, and overflows on to the trunk 01 
branches of the tree, or is sprinkled or drips on to leaves or under- 
