The Hawaiian gazette., 1909-06-08
SMITHS PLAN
BEING COPIED

In a recent industrial number of the
Mindanao Herald, in which consider
able attention is paid to the rubber in
dustry of the Moro province, j. w.
Strong, d. s., describes a series of rub
Der tree tapping experiments, in which
he adopted one of the articles dis
covered or suggested by Jared Smith,
In his Nahiku experiments. That was
the employment of a weak solution of
ammonia, directed to run the length
of the tapping cuts to prevent the too
rapid coagulation of the latex. Mr..
Smith led this ammonia solution to
the incisions by tying a piece of sack
ing around the tree and pouring the
solution on this; DIR. Strong has i'm
proved on the method, which he de-
scribes in his article.
The story of his own experiments in
Moro is preceded in his article by a
lengthy quotation from the report of
Mr.. Smith, in a report of the Hawaii
Experiment Station. Mr.. Smith was
the first man in Hawaii to tap rubber
trees in a system of experiments and
DIR. Strong was the man in the Philip
pines to tap cultivated rubber trees.
OF this tapping he says:
"On August 90 1908, the writer de-
cided to start a series of experimental
tappngs of young Ceara trees grown
from seeds, the trees being just three
years old on that day; 200 trees were
taken for the experiment and number
ed from l to 200 as they ran. The
average circumference was 22-1 inches,
and the average length of tapping
surface was 32.5 inches.
AT this time the trees were leafed
and in full bloom. 1t was decided to
make the series of tappings seven
days each, for 81 days, with a rest of
two weeks between each seven days.
THE full 'herringbone' system was
used, with laterals cut eight inches
apart. Small zinc drip-cups, with
hooks to fasten to bark, were fixed at
top of perpendicular. Each cup had
a small round hole in bottom, next to
tree, in which a wick was passed to
permit constant flow of ammoniated
water down the cut. At the bottom
of the perpendicular piece of curved
tin was inserted into the bark, con-
Quoting the latex to cup at the base
of the tree.
1T was found that 1-2 of per cent
drip cups would keep the latex fluid
for days, and each collector carried q
large bottle of the ammoniated water,
a small amount of which he poured
into the drip-cup before tapping. Each
collector also carried a squirt can of
the same solution, and after all laterals
were tapped few drops were allowed
to flow down the cut. This seemed to
promote the flow greatly and there
was scarcely any scrap left in cuts.
In fact there was so little that no in
convenience was caused to tappers in
reopening the cuts each morning, and
no effort was made to collect the
scrap.
During the first seven days trees
No. to 100 We're tapped every day.
tapping was done from about a. m.
to $50, and resulted in 5100 grams of
dry rubber, or about one and two
thirds ounces per tree.
"The second seven days. Nos. 1O1 TO
200 were tapped on alternate days for
seven tappings and resulted in $500
| grams.
After resting two weeks the third
tapping was begun and beginning
with No. q alternate trees, all even
numbers, were tapped for seven days,
but tapping was done in the evening
from four o'clock to about six. 1t was
noticed that the trees tapped latest in
the evening gave the most latex
1.-The tapping resulted in 5000 grams
of dry rubber, making total yield of
! 10 kilos 200 grams for the entire tap
ping-almost four and one-half ounces
| per tree for q tappings"