23 
Harrison Avenue. 
Block No. 7 6. 
Weeding finished. 
Notes by 
F. Marx. 
Planted 
- — — 
February 2nd 
1906. 
June 25th 
, : i 
1905. 
2 trees dropped. 
Si 
Somewhat crowded. 
Si 
Remarks. 
Last Weeding. 
T? 
- 
Main drain 
Dec. 19th 
C 
White ant nest destroyed to-day 
u 
m 
corn. Harr. & 
1905. 
with carb. dis. 
22nd needs 
immediate at- 
Stand is now perfect. 
tention. 
To-day’s work. 
Wind of Janu- 
Weeding, 
5 trees slightly injured by wind. 
ary 27th did 
5 men. 
Branches need chopping. 
slight damage 
Butler Avenue. 
Each assistant will be supplied with a note-book, the pages of 
which- are ruled in the above manner, and he is expected to make 
field-notes of any observations made during work or while riding 
over the estate. The notes are written on the card in a position 
indicating the place in the block, so that the men in the office are 
able to direct a foreman to attend to any small matter needing 
adjustment. From these cards maps can be drawn showing the 
exact condition of the plantation at any special time. 
( These notes are handed to the superintendent at the end of the 
day’s work and then copied on permanent cards which are filed 
in drawers in special cabinets. In this manner a large amount 
of detail is always ready for reference, and the history of any 
particular block can be learnt in a- few minutes time. With this 
system we will not be much handicapped through changes in the 
staff, as a new assistant with ordinary intelligence can grasp the 
details of the plantation in a few days. Similar notes are to be 
kept of tapping and all other operations in the field. 
We have fully realized the necessity of training our tappers, 
and we expect an ordinary tapper to cut 1,000 incisions per day’ 
that is to say, tap 250 trees with four incisions, up to one foot lonm 
Tapping should be done between 5 and 11 a.m. Evening tappings 
will not be practised as the distances are too great, and it would 
not pay to have the men walk several miles to tap probably one 
hour in the evening. Moreover, in our rainy season it almost 
invariably rains in the afternoon, and tapping must cease during a 
heavy ram to prevent loss of latex from washing. 
The problem that faces us within a few years on La Zacu- 
alpa is to tap over two million rubber trees. We know that we have 
to tap these twice in the six months season available. A simple 
mathematical calculation shows the amount of labour necessary as 
well as the great importance of our developing as economic and 
labour saving methods as possible. Fortunately rubber is a crop 
W 
nio 
