AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 



No. 5.] MAY, 1906. [Vol. V. 



TAPIOCA AS A CATCH CROP FOR RUBBER. 



The question of the practicability of combining the cultivation of 

 Tapioca with Para rubber is again coming to the front, and as there 

 has been a serious falling off in the supply of Tapioca from the 

 Malay Peninsula, with a consequent rise in price, and serious effects 

 on the trade in England, the possibility of using the plant as a 

 catch crop for rubber without injury to the latter is of very consi- 

 derable importance. Tapioca is accused of causing a great dete- 

 rioration of the soil. It is considered a very exhausting crop. The 

 extensive areas of land formerly under forest, which having been 

 cleared and planted with tapioca are now mere lalang wastes as 

 one often sees in Malacca seem to endorse the view that land is 

 permanently damaged or rendered useless for other cultivation by 

 the cultivation of Tapioca. In the ordinary method of cultivation of 

 Tapioca on a large scale the forest is felled and burnt, the Tapioca 

 cuttings put in the ground, and from three to five crops taken off 

 the soil, which of course is not manured and then the ground is 

 abandoned. The ground is weeded during the process, and the 

 results are the destruction of any after-growth except lalang, which 

 by constantly catching fire, by accident or intention prevents the 

 recuperation of the ground by the introduction of shrubs and trees, 

 the seedlings of which are destroyed every time the lalang which 

 is practically unhurt by fire, is burnt. Lalang ground which is 

 protected against fire recuperates in a few years, especially if there 

 is forest or secondary jungle near it. 



Gambier in the same way as Tapioca has been responsible for 

 the deterioration of areas of country and has also been accused of 

 being an exhausting crop. 



The idea in both these cultivations is that the plants in question 

 take something from the ground, necessary to the life of other 

 plants.- 



It is easy to understand that in removing Tapioca roots or gam- 

 bier leaves and twigs from the ground, a quantity of plant food 

 is removed and not replaced and naturally in this way the fertility 



