PLANTING DISTANCES 



in 



they do on flat land. This is on account of the fact that on 

 broken, hilly country successive rows of trees occupy higher 

 elevations, and light and air get in to an extent impossible at 

 the same distances on flat lands, and there is less interference 

 of the roots of one tree with another. 



Except on very hilly land or very poor soils all such close 

 distances as even 20 feet by 20 feet, and any distance or com- 

 bination of distances under that, is to be condemned. The 

 spread of the foliage of Hevea trees of various ages in the 

 Federated Malay States, in fair circumstances, is approximately 

 as follows: 



Age of Trees 



4-year-old trees 

 ~ 



10 



12 



Total spread of 

 branches in diameter 



16 feet 



20 



25 



3 



35 

 40 



In Sumatra perhaps a foot less diameter may be allowed for 

 each respective year, and in Ceylon at least a foot less per 

 annum than in Sumatra. 



The consequence is that if trees in the Federated Malay 

 States have been planted at distances of 14 feet by 14 feet, by 

 the time the trees are four years of age the branches will have 

 grown together so closely that the higher branches will so 

 densely overshadow the lower branches that no foliage can 

 possibly grow on them. Should the trees have been planted at 

 a distance of 20 feet by 20 feet, by the time they arrive at the 

 age of five years the branches will have met together. By the 

 time that they are seven or eight years old the lower branches 

 will be so overshadowed by upper branches that they will 

 be destitute of foliage, and having thus no function to perform 

 will be found to be rotting off the trees. 



One thing which at the outset strikes or should strike 

 any observant visitor to such plantations is the miserably- 

 circumscribed spread of the roots of the trees and their very 

 meagre thicknesses. This is a very serious matter for the trees. 

 When the roots of the trees can draw their supplies of moisture 

 and of food in solution only from very limited areas, they can- 



