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  3. Forestry / Wood / Timber

on plante l’âge / clown

English translation: See comments below...

18:24 Feb 1, 2007
French to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Forestry / Wood / Timber / rubber-tapping
French term or phrase: on plante l’âge / clown
I am VERY confused about this. It is clearly talking about a rubber plantation and how the trees are managed. At first I thought that 'l'âge' referred to the age of the tree (but that idea is repeated in 'années de culture') but that wouldn't make sense because you can't plant an age of tree - and these trees have obviously already been planted. So then I wondered whether the verb 'planter' here was being used in the sense of 'to cut with a knife', i.e. make an incision - and the 'âge' is some sort of device that you stick in the tree to draw off the latex into the cup - and is this the so-called 'clown'? I know this looks like more than one question - but it is all connected and so far I have drawn quite a few blanks on this. Can anyone make sense of exactly what is happening here? Happily, this technical bit is only a very small part of my translation... it moves on to other things.
Can anyone help me on this one? I would be most grateful.

Ma plantation fait 35 hectares et je suis en exploitation sur 18 hectares. Elle a été créée en (annee) ... et elle est entrée en saignée en (annee). 19 ans. Mais ce n’est pas toute la superficie. Ce sont les premiers 15 hectares qui ont 19 ans. ***A chaque année on plante l’âge proportionnel aux années de culture.*** Dans le jargon agricole de l’hévéa on appelle ça le ***Clown***. Il recueille le latex qui se coagule dans une tasse et ça devient des fonds de tasse que je mets sur une tablette que je prends et que j’amène à l’usine.
French2English
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:56
English translation:See comments below...
Explanation:
I think you'll find they're talking about 2 different things; I believe the "planter / âge" is referring to planting different age trees according to the surrounding areas; in other words, when planting fresh trees in, say, a 5-year-old wood, you plant trees that are already 5 years old, so they'll "keep up" I don't know anything about rubber growing, but this would seem logical to me, at least some kind of variation on the same idea.

As for the "clown", it looks as if there might be some text missing, or at least, a bit of a non sequitur; it almost seems as if the "clown" is referring to the little cup itself that collects the latex; or to the name of the person who goes round tapping the trees... yet from the way it follows on, it seems to refer to the principle of age-matching? Very odd!
Selected response from:

Tony M
France
Local time: 14:56
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
1 +4See comments below...
Tony M
5clone
Raymonde Gagnier
3food for thought
Bourth (X)
3Planting one hectare each year during the past three years
Francis Marche


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


25 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 1/5Answerer confidence 1/5 peer agreement (net): +4
See comments below...


Explanation:
I think you'll find they're talking about 2 different things; I believe the "planter / âge" is referring to planting different age trees according to the surrounding areas; in other words, when planting fresh trees in, say, a 5-year-old wood, you plant trees that are already 5 years old, so they'll "keep up" I don't know anything about rubber growing, but this would seem logical to me, at least some kind of variation on the same idea.

As for the "clown", it looks as if there might be some text missing, or at least, a bit of a non sequitur; it almost seems as if the "clown" is referring to the little cup itself that collects the latex; or to the name of the person who goes round tapping the trees... yet from the way it follows on, it seems to refer to the principle of age-matching? Very odd!

Tony M
France
Local time: 14:56
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 16
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  jean pierre belliard (X): i agree that something is missing.... including a slangy language !
21 mins
  -> Merci, Jean-Pierre !
agree  Rosie S (X): I agree with Tony. I'm glad for you that the rest of your translation isn't like this!
1 hr
  -> Thanks, Rosie!
agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
1 hr
  -> Efharisto, Vicky!
agree  Bourth (X): Definitely at least one non sequitur.
6 hrs
  -> Thanks, Alex!
neutral  Francis Marche: I doubt "planter/âge" refers to planting different age trees. Planting 5-year old trees in a 5 year-old stand etc. would very quickly become absurd (when the stand is 18 years like here).
1 day 19 hrs
  -> Thanks, Francis! Indeed, that was my own doubt too...
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13 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
clone


Explanation:
I agree with Tony for "planter l'âge", as for "clown" it's really "clone". The person who collects the latex is called a "saigneur".

"chez deux clones de l’Hevea ayant des potentialités de croissance contrastées pendant leur phase ... recherche agronomique pour le développement "
article.pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ppv/RPViewDoc?_handler_=HandleInitialGet&journal=cjb&volume=82&ca..

"Croissance en champ de clones d’Hevea brasiliensis produits par culture in vitro. ..."
jxb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/53/373/1453

"Avec toute l’importance que procure la culture de l’hévéa, plusieurs projets ... lors de la sélection des clones des plantules pour la production de souches"
www.irbv.umontreal.ca/francais/cours/caoutchouc/html/CIRAD....

Raymonde Gagnier
Canada
Local time: 08:56
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench, Native in EnglishEnglish
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18 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
food for thought


Explanation:
You might be able to "reinvent the wheel" with this text and make something of it, reading between the lines and turning it around to have it make sense.

Rubber trees have a life. After a certain time (around 25-30 years) they cease producing so much latex, making them unprofitable. So they are cut down and replaced.

Maybe this business about age and proportions is an attempt to explain that they replant a certain proportion every year so that, depending on the proportion of existing trees arriving at full (unprofitable) maturity, they will maintain a constant acreage of productive trees. Knowing too that it takes around 7 years for a rubber tree to reach a productive age.

Of his 35 acres, only 18 (en exploitation) have trees of productive age (or any trees at all), the rest being fallow, in the process of being felled, or planted with still-immature trees.

Bourth (X)
Local time: 14:56
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 52
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1 day 20 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Planting one hectare each year during the past three years


Explanation:
Ma plantation fait 35 hectares et je suis en exploitation sur 18 hectares. Elle a été créée en (annee) ... et elle est entrée en saignée en (annee). 19 ans. Mais ce n’est pas toute la superficie. Ce sont les premiers 15 hectares qui ont 19 ans. ***A chaque année on plante l’âge proportionnel aux années de culture.

He has been harvesting for 19 years over 18 hectares and he has been planting 1 hectare each year, presumably to compensate the loss of production from trees older than 18 years. We can assume he has been following this plantation regime for 3 years, hence the phrase "15 hectares are 19 years old" - the remaining 3 hectares being one, two and three years of age respectively.

Af for "clown" - I would keep it as "clown" and would not extrapolate (clone, etc.)

Francis Marche
France
Local time: 14:56
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 28
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