io8 THE RUBBER TREE BOOK 



To find any numbers not included in the table, divide the 

 square of the distance apart in feet the trees are desired into 

 43*560 the result indicates the number of trees contained in 

 an acre. 



Up till now there has been no general consensus of opinion 

 as to what are the proper distances at which Heveas should be 

 planted-out. Every planter has done what seemed good in his 

 own eyes. Ten feet by 10 feet, 12 feet by 12 feet, and 14 feet by 

 14 feet are now generally condemned by most planters as too 

 close planting. Yet many of the leading plantations in the 

 Federated Malay States have large areas planted at these dis- 

 tances. On one very large estate in the Federated Malay 

 States which has been planting within the last three years the 

 great bulk of the planting has been done at this close distance. 



Nearly all the older estates are planted up at a great variety 

 of distances. The planters having, in the beginning, no certain 

 rule to follow, tried something of almost everything, so that 

 there are quite a number of estates on which one can find trees 

 planted 10 feet by 10 feet, 12 feet by 12 feet, 14 feet by 14 feet, 

 17 feet by 17 feet, 12 feet by 24 feet, and so on, six to ten dif- 

 ferent varieties of distances existing on the same estate. As a 

 rule, however, planters are now practically agreed in condemn- 

 ing any closer distances than 17 feet by 17 feet or 12 feet by 24 

 feet distances of which there are many examples to be seen. 

 Recently there have been stout advocates for wider planting, 

 and 20 feet by 20 feet is the distance at which very many 

 thousand acres of new clearings have been planted up in 

 Sumatra. 



When considering planting distances, what appears to be a 

 paradox should be borne in mind, namely, the poorer the soil 

 the more trees to the acre it can support ; the richer the soil the 

 fewer trees to the acre it can maintain. The reason for this is 

 that on poor soil the trees grow more slowly, the roots do not 

 extend to such wide distances, and the foliage has a smaller 

 spread. 



On broken, hilly country, such as is common in Ceylon, 

 Borneo and Southern India, trees can stand closer planting to 

 the acre than on the flat lands of the east coast of Sumatra, 

 Province Wellesley and the Federated Malay States, although, 

 as a matter of fact, they really approach closer together than 



