27 

 in the ground. I saw on one estate the leaves of Albizzia 



c5 



Moluccana employed with great success for this purpose ; 

 the advantage is, that when they are a little shaken in 

 clearing them off the beds, the leaves fall off and in this 

 way a mulch is given to the bed which is very beneficial 

 to the young plants. The shade should be taken away as 

 soon as possible in order to obtain strong compact plants; 

 if there is too much shade given, fragile plants are 

 obtained, which will not stand transplanting. The beds 

 must be watered as little as possible, only for the first 

 few days should be soil be kept moist. 



Sometimes I saw seed beds planted under Hevea 

 plantations of several years old. This system is not 

 to be recommended. If a plantation is made on a old 

 nursery it is visibly thinner than plantations on virgin 

 ground ; this at once condemns the making of seed 

 beds in old plantations, equally with regard to the old 

 plantation as for the young plants. The young plants 

 get too much shade. If the planting is clone in baskets 

 there is the disadvantage of transplanting from the shade 

 into the open. It is different, if in young plantations 

 partitions are made between the rows for the cultivation 

 of seed beds. On one estate I saw beds planted in this 

 way, which had a very favourable appearance (see fig. 12). 

 At the place where the beds were to be made, the soil 

 had been dug up in the depth of ii/g feet, and then 

 bedded up with the surface soil from the immediate 

 neighbourhood. The beds were about 6 feet in width ; the 

 Hevea planted 12 X 24, the beds laid between the rows, 

 so that they were at a distance of 9 feet from the young 

 trees. The latter were two years of age, the beds, at 

 the time of my visit, were 21/3 months old. The position 



