454 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1955 



ing the processing plant, and transporting the product to tidewater 

 ports for export to temperate regions. Sugar, fruits, coffee, tea, 

 rubber, and fibers are the usual plantation crops. These and others 

 have usually been developed by foreign corporations with a competent 

 technical staff and with adequate capital to invest in plant and equip- 

 ment, as well as for research on control of pests and diseases, develop- 

 ment of better and higher yielding varieties, and increase of effective- 

 ness and economy of the processing plants. 



Europeans who led in the development of plantation crops in the 

 Tropics made some terrible mistakes, particularly in the earlier pe- 

 riods, when they attempted to raise rubber as an orchard crop, 

 clearing the land of wild trees, terracing it, and keeping the land 

 clean and well cultivated. This was not only expensive but was worse 

 than useless; it led to serious soil erosion. Now it is realized that 

 even in temperate regions it is not only necessary but preferable not 

 to maintain the plantations in a "shipshape" condition. It is not 

 difficult to understand that Hevea rubber, which is a wild forest tree 

 not long or far removed from its native habitat, can grow more effec- 

 tively and produce rubber more economically if it is maintained 

 imder forest conditions. Moreover, rubber does not require much 

 processing, and can be produced by a peasant with simple equipment. 

 Even before the last World War about three-fourths of all the rubber 

 coming out of the Netherlands Indies was produced by peasants 

 from their own small plantings of Hevea. 



Sugarcane is a different type of crop. High-yielding cane of good 

 milling quality responds significantly to cultivation and appropriate 

 fertilization. The fertilizer can usually be delivered economically 

 to the cane fields, for the need for rapid transportation of the cane 

 to the mill necessitates an adequate transportation system, usually 

 a light railway. To prevent serious deterioration of the cane and 

 loss of sugar, the cane should be milled within 24 hours of the time 

 of cutting. For effective, economical management of a sugar mill 

 it is necessary to maintain chemical control, and this requires a suffi- 

 ciently large mill to employ a chemist, and sufficient cane to maintain 

 operation continuously, night and day. As a consequence, sugarcane 

 growing for "plantation white" sugar production or for "centrifugal" 

 or 96-percent sugar for export is not adapted to peasant farming 

 to the same degree as Hevea rubber. 



For Occidental consumption tea must be processed in a relatively 

 large and expensive factory so that satisfactory quality can be main- 

 tained. To an increasing degree the tea gardens are owned and oper- 

 ated by peasants, and the fresh tea leaves delivered to the central 

 factory every morning for processing. This gives a satisfactory 

 quality of tea but, unfortunately, the peasant seldom seems to pay 



