24 THE RUBBER TREE BOOK 



impossible to have any cultivation of the soil between the 

 rows of the trees. The soil in such circumstances is a mass of 

 roots and no tillage is possible. Thus, the soil is apt to become 

 sour and dank, the beneficial soil flora can scarcely exist, their 

 numbers are inevitably greatly reduced and the conditions 

 which make for high fertility are absent. 



Almost everything alive breathes in oxygen and gives off 

 carbonic acid. The more oxygen there is in a cultivated, aerated 

 soil, the more energetic and vigorous is the life of all the 

 beneficial bacteria in the soil. 



The absolute necessity of cultivation and good drainage in 

 order to secure thorough aeration of the soil will be better 

 understood when it is comprehended that the process of nitrifica- 

 tion may be said to be an oxidation process and to mainly 

 consist of successive releases by the various bacteria of hydro- 

 gen atoms from the organic matter treated and replacement 

 of these atoms with atoms of ogygen. The better the cultiva- 

 tion the more is hastened the oxidation of the organic matter 

 in the soil, and thus fertility is facilitated. 



All soils, whether fine or coarse, light or heavy, are much 

 benefited by cultivation. Without cultivation there never can 

 be high fertility, and the best can never be got out of the land. 

 In its original sense, the word manure, from the Latin word 

 manus, the hand, meant to work up by hand, i.e., to cultivate. 

 This meaning of the word will be found in Defoe's celebrated 

 book, Robinson Crusoe, where Crusoe states, speaking of his 

 small crops, that " the ground that I manured or dug up for 

 them was not great." 



The mere surface scratchings of ordinary weeding of the 

 soil are not cultivation in the right sense. Cultivation goes 

 deeper, and does not, or at least should not, cease when weeds 

 cease to grow under the shade of the foliage of the Heveas. 

 Neglect of this has been the mistake of the management of 

 many of the older plantations and they have suffered very 

 seriously indeed thereby. 



If rubber cultivation is to be efficiently conducted in the 

 future, due cognizance must be taken of the action of bacteria 

 and the influences they exert. Knowledge of this kind throws 

 a flood of light upon the problem of How to make the best of 

 a rubber plantation. It touches the question at all points: 



