CAOUTCHOUC OR INDIARUBBER ( Cwm). 
A cooly working with one of the tools mentioned can collect 
from i to 1§ lb. of rubber a day. 
In 1898 some samples of Ceylon Ceara rubber obtained as 
much as 3s. 4rf. a pound in London, and a few estates, which 
have old trees, continue to harvest this rubber in small quan¬ 
tity. About 1 lb. of dry rubber per tree per annum is a good 
yield. It is by no means impossible that it may yet pay to 
grow Ceara rubber in waste land in the drier parts of the hills. 
Though the yield is hardly great enough to tempt a European 
planter, it is not quite clear why natives have not taken it up; 
they commonly use the tree as a hedge, and the tapping is easy. 
To sum up the chief facts bearing on the profitable harvest¬ 
ing of this product. The tree should be at least four years old ; 
it yields best in the dry season, and the milk r uns most readily 
in the morning. The outer bark is to be stripped off, and the 
tree tapped either by making V incisions, as in the case of Para 
rubber, or by pricking it. The milk rarely runs sufficiently 
freely to be collected in tins, and may be allowed to dry on the 
tree, when the tears or strings are removed and made into balls 
or slabs. The tree does not stand tapping as well as Para 
rubber, and one series of tappings lasting over six weeks in 
the year is as much as is wise, a few V’s only being made on 
each occasion, so that by the end of the tapping the cuts are 
at least six inches apart. 
It has yet to be properly investigated whether this tree show 
any wound response like the Para rubber ; if this were the case 
it would alter the question of its profitableness, though it is 
improbable that the response, if any, is a large one, or it would 
have been noticed. If sufficient milk would flow to be con¬ 
veniently collected in tins, the centrifugal treatment, invented 
by Biffen, could be applied with excellent results, or the milk, 
as suggested by Parkin, could be gently heated to boiling point. 
Some samples prepared in this way by Mr. Parkin from fairly 
large trees at Peradeniya were reported on by MM. Michelin 
et Gie. The samples consisted of scraps packed together, 
dear brown in colour, with no nitrogenous odour such as is 
