448 
tappings. The figures also prove that the small quantity of rubber 
yielded per tree by our tappings must be considered the maximum 
that can safely be extracted from them at present. Mr. Home’s 
estimate of 2 lbs. per tree made when forecasting the outturn of 
1898-99 was evidently of too sanguine a nature for the compart- 
ments as a whole. 
17. With the meagre information as yet at our disposal, it is no^ 
safe to arrange for work more than one year in 
u ure operations. advance. Next season, therefore, it is proposed 
to tap compartment 4 for the third year in succession, with the 
object of verifying, in a more decisive manner, the results obtained 
from the limited experiment mentioned in paragraph 16 and recorded 
in the attached Statement C. But should the results of tapping 
the first 100 trees of this compartment show conclusively that the 
outturn is much smaller than on previous occasions, the work in 
this area will at once be stopped. In addition, compartments 9, 10, 
and 11 of the Charduar plantation, containing 25r acres and 3.490 
trees, and the eastern block of the Khulsi plantation, containing 88 
acres and 2,400 trees, will be tapped for the first time. The Char- 
duar trees will be 19 and 20 years old and those at Khulsi 23 years 
old, and it is expected that they will yield, at the rate of 9 lbs. per 
acre a total of 3,051 lbs. of dean rubber fit for despatch to London. 
Subsequent operations should be guided greatly by the result of 
tapping compartment 4 for the third year in succession. If the out- 
turn is poor, it will, I think , prove that, in the present condition and 
age of the plantation, it is only less wrong to tap the trees two 
years than three years in succession, and the practice should be 
discontinued. As a tentative measure, under these circumstances, 
three years' rest should be allowed to each area after having being 
tapped over. On the other hand, if no bad results follow the re- 
tapping of No. 4, compartments 1, 2 and 3 that were last tapped 
in 1898-99, may be again operated on in 1901-1902, as well as com- 
partment 4 for the fourth year in succession. 
18. In conclusion, the following deductions have been made 
Conclusion from points brought out by the figures and ob- 
servations discusssed in the above report. In 
some cases these observations still require more proof before they 
can be formulated as rules for the guidance of future operations; 
but it seems convenient and likely to be useful to attempt such 
deductions as a means of attaining steadily, is gradually, to a correct 
method of plantation management: 
(1) That in the present condition of the plantation, only about 
9^ lbs. of clean rubber per acre can be safely extracted 
from the trees at one tapping (see paragraph 16). 
(2) That a densely-planted area does not necessarily yield more 
rubber per acre than an area of the same age in which 
the trees are relatively much fewer (see paragraph 3). 
(3) That the outturn of a tree in rubber seems to be in propor- 
tion to its crown or lateral spread (see paragraph 15). 
