" Mr. Cross's statement, that the Ceard rubber may be expected to grow
and flourish in soils where hardly anything else will live, is not supported by
Ceylon experience. On the contrary, there is no tree I can name that enjoys
more thoroughly richness of soil, and the difference between plants in good
and bad land is very marked.
" Collection, Value and Quantity of Produce. — Nobody is yet in a posi-
tion to say which is the best way to tap the tree when it reaches maturity ;
but, from experiments I have made, I believe it will be found impossible to
improve upon the method' adopted by the natives of Ceard. They bare the
trunk of the tree and allow the milk to trickle dawn the stem. Two or three
days afterwards the gum or caoutchouc is pulled off in strings and sent to
the market. As may naturally be supposed, the rubber reaches England in a
very impure state. Hence its value is less than the Pard kind, which is pre-
pared with the greatest care. My reason for thinking it impossible to improve
upon the native method of collection is because the flow of milk from a Cear^
tree is very slow, and any other system would increase the cost, a contingency
which must be guarded against. It may, perhaps, be found possible to purify
the caoutchouc in Colombo before shipping it to England. Labour is cheap,
and the machinery necessary for the operation is by no means complicated.
