THE NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES 281 



The organization of a rubber plantation in Java differs 

 in no essential particulars from the description given of 

 similar work in Malay or Sumatra, except in the matter 

 of the labour question already alluded to. The pre- 

 liminary work of felling, burning, and cleaning up can 

 be contracted for ; but the price shows small difference 

 whether arranged by such contracts or executed by 

 daily labour. The Government impose no restrictions 

 in regard to dwellings for coolies or in regard to hos- 

 pital accommodation, but it is found by experience that 

 these factors in estate life require careful and serious 

 attention in order to make the place popular for labour. 

 On the rubber plantations in Java it has become an 

 established custom in many districts to grow catch 

 crops of Robusta, Quillou, or Uganda coffee for the 

 first five years after the estate is opened. While catch 

 crops have been condemned in Malay and Sumatra, 

 there is a good deal to be said in favour of planting 

 these varieties of coffee in Java. 



Where the catch crops of Robusta, Quillou, or 

 Uganda coffee, are planted at the same time as rubber 

 in Java, the effect is less detrimental than might be 

 expected. The young rubber-trees obtain a fair start 

 before they are shut in by the growth of the coffee 

 bushes, and the estate is kept cleaner from weeds than 

 would be the case if no catch crop was planted. At 

 the end of the second year the coffee-trees are topped 

 at 6 feet from the ground, and by this time the rubber 

 has attained a height of some 12 or 14 feet, so that it 

 is never excluded from light and air. The danger to 

 some extent lies in the third and especially the fourth 

 years, when in order to obtain bigger coffee crops the 



