IKTERPLANTING 125 



the net profit is never more than ^15 per acre as 

 prices rule to-day. It is a troublesome plant among 

 major crops, and should be avoided. A great deal 

 is being claimed for the new tree cottons Caravonica 

 and Mamara, both of which are hybrids and should 

 not be confounded with the so-called tree cotton, the 

 Kapok plant, which is indigenous to the Malay States 

 and yields an inferior pinkish fibre which is largely 

 used in bedding and sofas in the Mid East. These 

 tree cottons are still in their trial period, although 

 it is claimed for a Mexican relation of the Caravonica 

 that a yield of 2250 Ib. per acre from it has been 

 actually placed upon the market. Tree cottons do 

 not lend themselves to interplanting. They yield in 

 about nine months and are at their maturity at three 

 years old, after which, unless vigorously pruned, 

 they decline and ultimately fail to yield, running 

 up into ungainly forest bushes 30 to 40 feet high. 

 Caravonica cotton is graded into silks, wool, and 

 kidney. The average price is between that of South 

 American and Sea Island. I am of opinion that the 

 extensive area of uncultivated land owned by the 

 Crown and lying between Matale North and the 

 great tanks in the N. Central Province of Ceylon 

 would grow this cotton to perfection, and I would 

 respectfully draw the attention of the British Cotton- 

 Growing Association to the subject. 



Still another of the crops recommended for inter- 

 planting with rubber is that of pineapples. But 

 surely nobody with any practical experience of this 

 plant would ever commit himself to such a sugges- 

 tion. Nothing impoverishes the soil so much as 



