WEEDING AND CULTIVATION 227 



masses of the soil on the slopes, is so very great and the conse- 

 quences so serious that it is distinctly preferable to encourage 

 some sort of light weeds as a protective covering. It is when the 

 ground is first cleared that the most mischief is done. At such 

 times, when the former growths of weeds which bound the soil 

 together are dug out, a shower of rain involves an immediate 

 landslide. There is no time, even if it were possible, to make 

 drains or water-pits before the surface slides away. Indeed, 

 in such circumstances, drains and water-pits are an additional 

 provocation to huge slides of land. It is best, therefore, not to 

 clear too much of a steep hillside at once without doing some 

 immediate work to protect the soil. If trees have been felled 

 the logs should be laid lengthways along the hillsides and belts 

 of grass or hedges at once installed. 



In Ceylon, where the soil is so often very rocky, terracing 

 can generally, although not always, be done. Very serious 

 damage has been done to native rice-fields in some instances by 

 heavy washing-down of surface soil from cleared areas, and 

 compensation has had to be paid. Belts of grass and other 

 means had to be established to aid the contour-drains in re- 

 taining the surface-soil. 



Once lalang has been eradicated no good manager should 

 have difficulty in keeping light weeds on steep hillsides in order. 

 From time to time they should be scythed down and dug in 

 when the soil is being chankolled over. In this way they act as 

 an excellent mulch to the soil and greatly add to its fertility. 



Great advances have been recently made in what is called 

 " dry-farming " in various parts of the world by means of 

 which large tracts of arid or semi-arid regions have been brought 

 into successful cultivation. The success of this dry-farming 

 mainly depends upon the application in practice of two simple 

 propositions, the bearing of which on rubber cultivation as well 

 as dry-farming should be obvious. 



The first proposition is based on the well-known fact else- 

 where insisted on in this book that a cultivated soil absorbs 

 more water than an uncultivated and, therefore, more imper- 

 vious soil. 



The second principle, also discussed at length elsewhere, 

 is founded on the fact that a loose layer on the surface of the 

 soil greatly assists in preventing evaporation of the water stored 



