262 



be done as seed is obtainable. For the moment the whole of the 

 seed until the autumn of 1 906 is booked. Lucky are those who 

 have plantations giving seed. They are, of course, careful to 

 supply their own needs first. Only planters of experience can 

 look at a jungle forest and decide whether the land is suitable. 

 There judgment is based on the variety of trees growing, and the 

 size and condition of those trees enable them to decide whether 

 the soil is suitable. Tests must be made of the soil, the rainfall, 

 and the wind, all which points are of importance. Most people 

 would say, why select jungle ? The answer is, because in a tro- 

 pical country, if no jungle is growing, you may be sure the soil is 

 bad, for the birds and the wind, in the space of years, have sown 

 so many seeds of all sorts that if it has not formed jungle some- 

 thing must be wrong. When clearing, the large trees are felled, 

 and, after being allowed to dry, the whole is burnt off, and for 

 this, of course, a dry season is requisite. Rainfall should be from 

 75 in. to 120 in., and as soon as rain sets in, planting starts from 

 a nursery-bed, sown a few weeks or months previously. 



RUBBER AND COCOA. 



The trees are usually planted 15 ft. apart. Between the rubber 

 trees are frequently planted smaller growing trees or shrubs, such 

 as cocoa, tea, and coffee, and latterly even cotton has been tried. 

 These are all dwarf plants, compared to the rubber trees, which 

 attain a height of 60 ft. to 80 ft. Cocoa has been found to be the 

 best and most profitable crop to grow under the rubber trees ; for 

 the reason that the trees help each other. The cocoa has a heavy 

 fall of leaf, and thus manures and benefits the rubber, and the 

 rubber acts as a shade to the cocoa, which, indeed, cannot be 

 successfully grown without a shade tree. Whether or not the 

 rubber would eventually " snuff out" or stifle the cocoa nobody can 

 say, as there are no plantations old enough for one to be able to 

 judge. It looks, however, as if the cocoa would survive for about 

 twenty years and as it yields crops from the fifth year (a year or so 

 before the rubber is fit to tap), there is every prospect of the crop of 

 both products lasting for quite fifteen years, and either the one or 

 the other could be given the preference thereafter, either by cutting 

 back the shade or allowing the cocoa to be stifled. 



At present it looks as if nobody would worry about the cocoa ; 

 for the production of cocoa, being about I J lb. a tree (200 trees 

 per acre), is worth only 6d. a pound, or, say, £7 lOs. per acre 

 whereas the l| lb. of rubber obtainable from trees only eight 

 years old is worth at the present moment about £lOO per acre. 

 The cocoa cost 3d. per pound to pick and prepare, that is, about 50 

 per cent of its value ; whereas the rubber only costs about 6d. per 

 pound to collect and prepare or about 10 per cent, of its value. 



Although at the present moment the oldest estates (10 years of 

 age) are giving 2 lb. of rubber per tree per annum, it is hardly fair 

 to take this yield as the basis of calculation ; but even with Ceylon 

 biscuit rubber at 5/ and only I lb. per tree yield, from the sixth 

 or seventh year onward a profit of over £40 per acre can be made 



