Rubber

This series is designed for research workers, agricultural advisors and all those professionally involved in tropical agronomy. The books are also intended to provide a review of the field for university teachers and students of agriculture. The books aims to provide a comprehensive account of the cultivation and exploitation of the rubber tree and of the processing of its latex for export. It starts with an accountt of the history of natural rubber production with special emphasis on the demand-supply relationship, followed by chapters on the botany of Hevea and on the development of imported cultivars of H. brasiliensis by selection, breeding and vegetative propagation. It goes on to discuss the climate and soil requirements of the crop and the clearing and preparation of land for planting, the propagation, planting and pruning of the trees and the maintence of the plantation. The physiology of latex production and flow in response to tapping and yield stimulation and the processing of latex into dry rubber or latex concentrate are covered.
Written by agricultural scientists with experience of the crop in several countries, it includes a summary of the results of research that has enabled modern rubber growing to become more scientifically based and increasingly efficient.