The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-18

back may ride beneath their lower
branches without bending his head
And other orchards are being planted
all along the nearby slopes of Halea-
kala. the primeval forest is falling be-
fore the axes of forces of laborers, and
little rubber saplings from a foot to
ten or eighteen feet in height are
springing up everywhere to eventually
clothe the mountain sides.
ITO the visitor little progress in
clearing the lands seems to have been
made for I'll the cleared lands are
vast tangle of dead and rotting tree
| ferns. To plant rubber it is not neceS-
! Sary to remove the fern StumDS and
! the trunks of the felled trees. There is
! little or no hard wood in the district
| and the plan followed is merely to
cut out the underground and to fell
the trees and leave them to rot where
/ they fail. The process of disintegra-
/ ton is exceedingly fast in that moist
/ and humid district and the dead wood
| RAPIDLY becomes new soil. In the midst
/ of the heaps of fallen trees and piles
| of fern stumps at regular intervals
spaces few feet square are cleared
and here the young plant just emerged
i from the seed is brought from the
/ nurseries ana set out.
| HOW RUBBER TREES PROGRESS.
1.-The progress of the growth of
rubber tree from seed to plant, plant
to sapling and sapling to it's full
growth is interesting to study. The
I seed of the Ceara when green looks
like young lime; as it grows to full
ma turity its shell bursts with a loud
/ pop like a torpedo and the tree
seeds-brown and shiny and notified,
very like tiny turtles with head legs
and tail drawn in-hy in all direc-
tons. The seeds are first filed or
ground at the sharper end to aid in
the process of termination and they
are then planted in nurseries, low
structures, covered with wire netting
to Keep out the rats, which abound in
the surrounding forest, and in two or
three days two little green leaves APP
pear above the surface AT once they
are transplanted to their permanent
abodes. Mr. Anderson has devised
very ingenious plan for transplanting.
A piece of sheet iron or brass about
eight inches long is shaped into a sort
of square-sided handleIess trowel This
is pushed into the soft soil beside the
young plant and when withdrawn
it. This trowel is placed in a rack,
another is used for the next plant and
when the Ia borer has q rack full he
carries his load to the field where the
holes have been dug. Placing the
trowel in the hole he heaps the earth
around it and carefully withdraws the
trowel, leaving the young plant be-
hind. This method of transporting
the plant from nursery to field in it's
own earth saves it's roots from eX-
posure to the air and lessons the dam
ger of injuring the tender stalk. 1t
has been one of the reasons why SO
few of the young trees have died in
the first few months. After it is set
in its permanent home the plant is
protected for a few weeks from the
depredations of the cut worm by plac-
ing over it a short cross-Section of
bamboo. Once the young shoot has |
grown to three or four inches in |
height it will take care of itself, |
neither rats nor cut worms attacking |
it, and then it needs but occasional |
cultivat ton of the soil about it for the |
next year or so of its life.
WHEN TO TAP.
Experts in different parts Of the |
world have fixed different ages at |
which it is safe to begin tapping rub |
her trees for commercial purposes. |
Some trees may be tapped without IN |
jury after three to four years, While |
others are of slower growth and SIX |
years is the minimum age at which |
they should be tapped The Ceara |
tree, which belongs to the same fam |
lily as the castor oil plant and the cas-
sava, and has a smooth bark some |
what like the birch, and large many
lcbed leaf is the tree which has been |
most largely planted in Nahiku thus |
far 1t produces rubber early and in |
quantities. In a recent |
on Rubber in Hawaii. |
Mr. Jared G. Smith of the United |
States Agricultural Station in Homo |
lulu stated that Ceara was especially |
suited TO the climate of these islands |
and should produce well here. The |
Nahiku Rubber Company has likewise |
planted large number of Hevea Bra |
the tree which produces the |
celebrated Para rubber. whose price |
on the London market fixes the price |
Of rubber the world over. (The price |
of Para at the present time is $3.50 !
per pound) The Ficus Elastica. |
which is akin TO the banyan, and which |
grows well at high elevations and in |
a climate whose minimum temperature