226 THE RUBBER TREE BOOK 



not greatly retard the growth of the trees, although it certainly 

 does retard them. 



Of course, some qualification of the foregoing should be 

 made. Where companies can face the expense of terracing, 

 contour-drains, water-pits and other means of preventing wash 

 of soil, and the outlays for their annual upkeep, then, except 

 in the case of very steep slopes with loose, friable soil, such 

 methods may be, and often are, adopted instead of encouraging 

 the growth of grasses or light weeds. The weeds certainly 

 hold the soil best and the cost is also much less, hence the 

 practice of employing them for this purpose is spreading greatly 

 in the Federated Malay States and in Sumatra during recent 

 years. 



Clean-weeding under all possible circumstances used to be 

 an obsession with many leading planters, so much so that they 

 would hardly discuss the subject, and looked upon anyone who 

 ventured to dispute their verdict as a pariah, or at least a person 

 void of common sense. Matters are changing in this respect, 

 and in Sumatra, at least, many of the best managers are en- 

 couraging the growth of light weeds, even on flat land, a course 

 which cannot be approved of. 



Weed coverings on flat land are thought by some to be 

 advantageous from the point of view that they keep the surface 

 of the soil moist. This is just exactly the principal reason why 

 they are objectionable. When the surface of the soil is moist it 

 means that heavy evaporation is going on and that the valuable 

 moisture from the rainfall which should be stored up in the 

 sub-soil is being wasted. The reasons for this are discussed at 

 length in the chapter on The Soil and on the next page. It is 

 because weeds drain away from the trees their stores of moisture 

 necessary for good growth that trees in weedy plantations are 

 so very backward in growth. Where it is possible, by means of 

 . contour-drains or water-pits, to do without coverings of grass or 

 weeds on slopes which are not too steep, it is best to do so. If 

 a company can afford the considerable costs involved in a very 

 thorough system of contour-drains or water-pits, and the labour 

 and the outlays involved in frequently clearing them after rains, 

 then this course is the best to follow. Where, however, the soil 

 is very loose and the slopes very steep, then the danger of losing 

 the surface-soil by wash, or the bodily sliding away of large 



