390 



FICUS ELASTIC A. 



1 have just tapped a tree and got 5 ozs. rubber first time, 2} ozs. 

 second time. The tree is now dry. Age 4 years and 1 month. 

 I think we can safely calculate on getting half a pound per tree in 

 the sixth year. 1 should like to know it you are able to give me 

 any information about any trees tapped at that age or near it. 



F. A. CALLOWAY, 



Bukit Rajah Estate, Klang. 



(Can any correspondent give additional results on tapping Ficus 

 elastica. Ed.) 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF RICE AS A 

 CATCH CHOP. 



I have been asked to make some notes on the above subject for 

 the "Bulletin" but 1 can only pretend to give our own experience, 

 (Lanadron Esta'te, Muar) based upon our harvest under a system 

 which may or may not be applicable to other districts. In a coun- 

 try where the natural conditions are favourable for the cultivation 

 of rice and where the amount produced is only an infinitesimal 

 portion of that which is consumed, it seems to offer a good channel 

 for energy and enterprise. But there are many difficulties natural 

 and otherwise which have to be overcome and unless grown with 

 other crops I cannot see how an European could succeed. I must 

 mention that my remarks apply to " hill-paddy " only. To succeed 

 it must be planted on a fairly large scale otherwise rats and birds do 

 a great deal of damage. Then the handling involves a great deal 

 of labour and unless the crop is large enough to warrant the use 

 of handling and treating facilities, it entails too great an expense. 

 1 will endeavour to explain our "modus operandi" in the hopes 

 that it may be of interest to some of the readers of the Bulletin. 



First of all we select suitable fields, those that have little or no 

 shade, supply the weeding contractor with nine tins (45 gantangs) 

 of selected paddy seed with which he plants up the ten acre block 

 and as he has a half interest in the crop, with very few exceptions 

 the work is well done. Planting entails some expense as it requires 

 a batch of men to plant up a held, but the contractor has to arrange 

 for this. After about five months the harvesting commences and 

 here a difficulty presents itself in consequence of the antiquated 

 method of gathering, each ear of ripe grain being snipped off, one 

 by one, with a small circular knife, after which the gram is thrash- 

 ed by treading under foot and then winnowed in the usual primi- 

 tive way. Last season this work entailed an extra hundred hands 

 for the three hundred acres under cultivation and thev were paid 

 in paddy, viz., one-fifth of that which they gathered. This season 

 we have made arrangements to reduce this waste of labour by con- 

 structing small hand thrashing machines. The crop will be reaped 

 with a (( sabit " or reaping hook and the stalks put into the ma- 



