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were unable to take action without the sanction of their directors. 

 Especially at this time the problem was a very important one, and 

 the time was very opportune to discuss it in the District Plantei's' 

 Associations. (Hear, hear.) 



Mr. Bebengee, of the Taiping Gardens, in supporting what 

 Mr. Eaton had said, remarked that he had for a long time taken an 

 interest in the matter, not from the theoretical side alone, for he had 

 been 10 years on rubber estates and knew the conditions of things. 

 There was certainly a large number of products that could be grown. 

 The ordinary cooly, as they knew, had no idea of even looking after 

 himself, so that they should do these things for him. A small 

 portion of land might be set apart and the cooly would very soon 

 know what to do with it. Some assistance might, of course, be given 

 in the form of fertilizei"s. Such things like basic slag and other 

 chemical manures could not, of course, be got easily now, but there 

 were some by-products, like coconut poonac and ground-nut meal, 

 that would be very good. 



The speaker described a certain experiment with this meal 

 on lalang-ridden land which gave surprising results. Cattle manure 

 in this country was not very rich, as it was usually exposed to the 

 weather, so that such elements as phosphoric acid, etc., were washed 

 away. He knew of some planters who said that they had even gone 

 to the extent of buying cattle for the sake of the manure, but the 

 results were not very encouraging. There was no reason why 

 it should not succeed if they did it properly. Some of the bigger 

 estates ought to go in for something in the nature of practical 

 farming and they would find that it did not cost very much, nor 

 would the labour required exert any great strain on their resources. 



Mr. Pinching, after saying that there were several estates that 

 used cattle manure, remarked that in regard to the growing of 

 food-stuffs on estates he was afraid most planters would say that they 

 had enough on their hands with rubber. He believed that som^ 

 estates had made efforts of one kind or another but had not met 

 with success. One estate even tried to grow rice but found that they 

 suffered a great loss. 



Mr. A. G. G. Ellis, Assistant Agricultural Inspector*, spoke of 

 an estate in Perak where the manager gave his coolies small plots 

 and offered a prize for the best kept garden. The coolies became 

 quite interested and excellent results were achieved. He had 

 suggested the same thing to others, and he believed that it wa« 

 being taken up. 



Mr. Coombs replying to the query as to the possibilities of 

 planters producing rice on estates stated that without wishing to in 

 any way disparage efforts in this direction he felt that it would be 

 of service to indicate the following points : {a) That dry land padi 

 is essentially a " fii-st crop " irova. newly-felled jungle land or fi'om 



