V 



FIELD CULTURE 



125 



be said that where a profit can be obtained as the land 

 is cleared, it should be done ; still I have seen more 

 than a few cases where planters were so eager to reach 

 the stage of cultivating the land, and so occupied with 

 this single aim, that they wasted the natural resources 

 and failed to get any return whatever from marketable 

 timber sufficient to have paid the whole cost of establish- 

 ing the plantation. 



As already said, it will be necessary to burn the 

 ground over several times to get rid as completely as 

 possible of branches, trunks, and stumps which would 

 interfere with the use of the land. This burning wastes 

 the nitrogen stored up in the native vegetation, and 

 usually causes the soil to retain its original fertility for 

 a shorter time than it would if the vegetation were 

 permitted to decay in place. Nevertheless, it is often 

 the only possible practice, because in the absence of fire 

 the vegetation which has been removed will be replaced 

 by brush before it is sufficiently out of the way to 

 permit effective cultivation, even by hand. 



The removal of stumps is a different question. In 

 temperate countries no good farmer tries to convert 

 woodland into field without removing the stumps of 

 the trees. Kubber planters in the Orient are rather 

 generally agreed that they should do the same when 

 planting rubber on virgin land, and some English coco- 

 nut planters in Ceylon have maintained that the plant- 

 ing of coco -nuts on land from which the stumps have 

 not been removed is a slipshod device which cannot be 

 regarded as decent farming. This probably depends 

 largely upon the relative value of land and labour. 

 Where the land is expensive and labour is cheap, it is 

 good business to invest more money in labour and less 

 in land than it is in places where the conditions are 

 reversed. The former condition is the general one in 

 Ceylon. Where land is as cheap as it is in the 

 Philippines, and where labour is as expensive, I am 

 very sure that any man will in the long run get far 

 greater returns on the capital he invests if he clears and 



