CHAPTER XXX L 



WEED COVERINGS 



r I "* HERE are a variety of methods employed to keep down 

 the growth of weeds and to reduce weeding expenses. 

 With many rubber companies money is not too plentiful, and 

 there is a constant demand made on the manager to keep down 

 weeding costs by all possible means. 



Under such circumstances managers often plant up their 

 fields with coverings of passiflora, kratok, crotalaria, mimosa, 

 indigo or other leguminous plants with the idea of enriching the 

 soil while at the same time keeping down weeding costs. 



None of these coverings are free from objection. Passiflora 

 is generally difficult to establish. It grows in patches and leaves 

 considerable areas of the soil without covering. If the object 

 is to keep down weeds it is often a signal failure, although in 

 the case of low-growing weeds, such as the very troublesome 

 teki or kora grass, it has on occasion been a success. I have 

 scarcely ever seen passiflora that was not full of weeds. It 

 frequently helped as a shade and shelter for lalang, which it 

 was incapable of smothering. It also affords a comfortable 

 domicile for rats, snakes and other vermin. Altogether, whether 

 in Ceylon, the Federated Malay States, Java or Sumatra, in 

 every case where I have seen it introduced it has been a failure. 



Kratok is another covering employed for the purpose of 

 reducing weeding expenses. It grows much more luxuriantly 

 than passiflora in Java and Sumatra, which are the only 

 countries in which I have seen it employed. The soil is soon 

 covered with a thick mat of vegetation, about i J feet in height. 

 Like the covering of passiflora, it is also full of other weeds, 

 and affords an even better shelter for vermin than passiflora 

 does. If one lifts the mat of vegetation the soil will be found 

 wet and dank underneath. On Boekit Maradja Estate, Sumatra, 

 where this covering was tried on a limited area, the young trees 



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