124 THE WHOLE ART OF RUBBER-GROWING 



that followed the awful drop in prices and Brazilian 

 competition some years ago. Thousands of acres 

 were under coffee at this period. Prices fell 75 per 

 cent., and planters were in despair. At a critical 

 moment Ceylon, through the agency of its experi- 

 mental gardens at Peradeniya, sent a few plants and 

 a large consignment of rubber seeds to Singapore, 

 and with them came undreamed-of wealth to the 

 Malayan planter. 



Coffee comes into bearing in from two to three 

 years. At present prices it yields about ^16 per acre 

 gross profit. The Coffee Robusta is expected to 

 yield much higher returns. It is an expensive plant 

 to manipulate among rubber. The Malayans remove 

 it immediately they find that the shade from the 

 growing rubber interferes in the slightest with the 

 flowering of the plant. 



He must be a very patient and tolerant planter 

 who will choose such a thing as pepper as a crop 

 for interplanting Yet I have seen large areas put 

 down to this crop in conjunction with rubber. It is 

 a tall bush, quite 7 feet in height, and so slender and 

 emasculated that it has to be supported like the vine 

 by poles and frames. The fruit is a small berry 

 which is dried before being sent to market. Pepper 

 reaches maturity in about three years. By itself it 

 is regarded as a very profitable crop. 



Cotton cannot be regarded as a catch crop, for the 

 simple reason that it requires special climatic con- 

 ditions for its well-being. The annual plant yields 

 in seven to nine months, according to situation. A 

 fair average return of lint cotton is 250 lb. per acre, 



