growing, and collecting rubber, has just ended his visit to one of 
the best and most representative rubber estates, Culloden, in Neboda. 
A description of the tapping on this estate from the pen of the 
manager, Mr. R. W. i I ARRISON, appeared on the 1 2th instant, it 
will be remembered. M. COLLET'S visit to the estate had for its 
special object a series of 
« TESTS WITH A TAPPING KNIFE 
which M. Collet has lately invented. M. Collet returned from 
Culloden this morning, and a representative of the Times of Ceylon 
elicited from him that the tests were eminently satisfactory. He is 
under a pledge to communicate the results of his tests to the local 
“ Tropical Agriculturist, ” and was therefore reluctant to say more 
than that he thinks that the use of his knife in Ceylon will lead to 
a better flow of the latex, and certainly that it will result in all in- 
jur, to the tree being avoided. The knife can only penetrate the 
bark, and the incision made is such that 
THE WOUNDS HEAL PROMPTLY. 
M. COLLET is quite satisfied with these results and will not make 
any more experiments with his knife in Ceylon. He is very much 
impressed with the magnificent growth and the fine character of 
the Para trees on Culloden; it is one of the best estates he has seen 
• in the East, he says, and he has, judging from what is done at 
Culloden, the best anticipations for the rubber industry of the Island. 
THE SOIL IN CEYLON IS POORER 
than in the Straits, thinks M. COLLET. “It is very fine soil for 
rubber, of course, but the soil in the Straits is, comparatively, finer, 
1 think, ” he said. One thing that he noticed interested him very 
much, and that was the very hardy character of the Para tree. “ It 
grows amidst rocks and all sorts of unevenness, ” he remarked, in 
a tone of surprise. Culloden estate taught him that one cannot 
hurt the Hevea tree by any force of circumstances. Where the 
Straits are better off than Ceylon is that, their soil being much bet- 
ter, the trees in the Straits attain in two years the girth and fine 
appearance which in Ceylon they would take four years to put on. 
M. Collet took several 
PHOTOGRAPHS OF CULLODEN ESTATE, 
and the typical trees there, which he was busy developing this 
morning. These will furnish illustrations for his second volume 
dealing wfth Asiatic Para Rubber. 
M. Collet went up to Peradeniya by this afternoon's train and 
will stay some days at the Botanical Gardens. He will then proceed 
to Kepitigala and other rubber estates in Matale, returning to 
Colombo next week. 
0 From Ceylon Times , April 21st, 1904.) 
