CHAPTER XXXVI 1 



INTER-CROPS 



ENERALLY speaking, there is no doubt that, if one 

 V__JT wishes to grow the best possible rubber trees, a rubber 

 plantation ought to be a rubber plantation all the time and 

 without any catch or inter-crops. 



The distinction between catch-crops and inter-crops consists 

 in the fact that inter-crops, such as tea, are intended to be more 

 or less permanent, whereas catch-crops, such as tapioca, on the 

 other hand, are only intended to occupy the ground for one or 

 two years at most. 



Catch-crops, such as tapioca, indigo, ground-nuts, pine- 

 apples, gambier and hemp, have gone largely out of favour, as 

 it has been found that the profits attaching to them are of a 

 very illusory description, after the expenses of factories and 

 machinery for the purposes of manufacture have been met. 

 These press heavily upon income when only one or two crops at 

 most are possible. Then, too, it has been fully recognized that 

 hemp, pine-apples (which are a species of hemp), gambier, and 

 tapioca are crops which are exceedingly exhausting to the soil. 



In Singapore Island, for instance, owing to the blessings of 

 settled government, a large native and Chinese population has 

 long been settled, and the ground has been cropped and re- 

 cropped under tapioca, pine-apples and gambier for many a 

 long year. Even at the present day one can see on several 

 estates pine-apples between the rows of rubber trees. As a 

 consequence the rubber trees are extremely backward for their 

 age. In acreages on the same estates, where the pine- apples 

 have been removed and the ground dug over, the rubber at 

 once responds. On some estates the coming into bearing of 

 the rubber is delayed two and possibly three years by the 

 continual growing of this catch-crop. Profits from pine-apple 

 growing have been much reduced of recent years, and any meagre 



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