57 



districts. The leaves are cut off and used for the pre- 

 paration of the well known dye; the whole industry is 

 in the hands of the Chinese. The catch crop of Indigo 

 appears to do more good than harm to the rubber. 

 In Java I saw it used sometimes as a green manure 

 in Hevea plantations, in this case the leaves are cut 

 off and dug in. 



Several other plants have been experimented upon by the 

 European planters for catch crops, but not on a large 

 scale and with one exception quite unsuccessfully ; 

 as an example may be quoted the Sansevieria, a fibre 

 plant; it was not even cut and during my visit, it was 

 being pulled up out of the Hevea. On the same estate, 

 there was planted with more success, a relatively rare 

 medicinal plant, which is often found in the neighbourhood. 

 I refrain from giving its name here, as the one estate 

 fully meets the requirements of the market and more 

 plantations would speedily result in an over-production. 



On one estate in Java, I saw Citronella and Lemon 

 grass planted as a catch crop. At the present prices, these 

 cultures are hardly profitable ; they require a rather 

 expensive installation and the transport of the leaves 

 from the plant to the stills involves much labour. 



3. SHRUBBY PLANTS AS A CATCH CROP. 



On some old coffee estates in the Malay Peninsula 

 Liberian coffee has been planted as catch crop between the 

 rubber; but I only saw young estates planted up in 

 this way. In Sumatra, I saw an example of Hevea 

 planted out between young Liberia; during my visit 

 the Hevea was about two years old, the Liberian coffee 



