PARA RUBBER. 
The Penang Gardens rubber tree, figured in the August number 
of this Bulletin, has now been tapped for the seventh time and the 
result is 2lfe. i3^oz. of dry rubber which makes a total of :8tb. 7 oz. 
in seven years. If this can be maintained, and I see no reason 
why it should not he as the tree has at no time been excessively 
tapped, the yield of latex in fact being almost as good when tapping 
ceased as at any period of the tapping and much better than at the 
beginning, the financial result of a rubber plantation on which the 
trees are as good as this, and I have heard of some a good deal 
better, cannot be questioned. The method followed during the 
whole period cff tapping this tree from June 1897 to September 1902 
has been the same throughout, but other methods have been tried 
in a more or less perfunctory manner on some smaller trees and I 
consider this the best; so at the risk of repeating what many readers 
of the Bulletin have already read in the Annual Reports on the 
Botanic Gardens I will briefly describe the system. A smalt per- 
pendicular channel a foot or more in length and about one eighth 
of an inch broad, but not deep enough to obtain much rubber, is 
first made, and at the base of this is affixed the tin or other re- - 
ceptacle to receive the latex. I his channel is not subsequently 
enlarged or interfered with its purpose being merely to conduct the 
latex to the tin. Leading to this channel diagonally are made two 
or three incisions on either side which supply the latex and from 
the upper surface of which a thin shaving is removed every morning 
or every alternate morning which causes a fresh flow of latex. In 
each of these tappings a thin shaving has been removed thirteen 
times which with the initial opening of the cuts make fourteen 
operations and constitute what I term one tapping. It will thus be 
seen that the number of times this tree has actually been operated 
on amount to seven times fourteen, that is ninety-eight, and the 
average amount of dry rubber obtained from each operation is about 
three ounces. The daily amount however varies very much, the 
yield at the beginning, during the first two or three operations, be- 
ing so little that any one not acquainted with the nature of this tree 
and who has been accustomed to tap “ Rambong” or other native 
rubbers in which the greatest flow of latex is at the first operation 
would naturally be disappointed. I have before me the figures 
showing the amount of the daily collections of three tappings 
weighed while still wet with the water pressed out by hand, and 
the first seven operations gave 94^ oz. while the second seven gave 
210 oz. or a total of 303 oz. This when dried gave 156 oz. ora 
loss of about 50 per cent, and as I have already stated in one of my 
annual reports this proportion of loss in drying may be taken for 
all practical purposes as a basis of calculation by planters. As it is 
advisable to put some water in the tins to pi-event too rapid coagu- 
lation there will be a little variation but for all practical purposes 
the calculation is sufficiently correct. The latest tapping was not 
weighed in the wet state but each day’s collection was marked and 
weighed separately when dry, and the result as regards the increase 
