414 



when it did not produce the results hoped for, deeming it 

 a failure. 



Another reason for some planters not finding the use 

 of cover plants so perfect a substitute for weeding as they 

 hoped was that the cover plant (very often crotalaria) was 

 sown broadcast, and it has been found by experience .over 

 large areas that this method of planting cover plants is 

 wasteful and very much less effective than sowing the seed 

 by dibbling, planting in furrows, or similar methods. The 

 loss ma} 7 be due to the exposure of the germinating seed to 

 the sun, or to its being washed along when the tender root- 

 Jets are beginning to form, or birds may eat the seed, but 

 whatever is the cause it is always found that the proportion 

 of seed producing plants is very small indeed. 



On the other hand, the planting in lines, the seed being 

 slightly covered, results in 80-100 per cent, of the seed pro- 

 ducing healthy plants. 



In planting cover plant on steep land it is imperative 

 that the lines should follow the contour of the land; when 

 they are made to run up and down the hillside the seed will 

 be washed down with the loosened earth. This results in 

 the seeds being massed in one place, and the young plants 

 growing closely together in clumps at the foot of the lines. 



The use of cover plants in place of clean weeding is 

 now, after three years' constant advocacy, very generally 

 considered as an economical and practical practice, which 

 I have no doubt will greatly increase when the benefit to the 

 rubber and the saving in expense have been proved on a 

 large number of estates. 



The relative advantages of various plants as cover 

 plants for rubber clearings is an important question to 

 decide before proceeding to lay down fields with one or 

 other. Leguminous plants possess the property of in- 

 creasing the amount of available nitrogen in the soil by 

 means of bacteria living in their roots which obtain nitrogen 

 from the air, and in this respect should be preferred to 

 other plants. 



The chief thing to consider in laying down a cover plant 

 is vapidity and cheapness in thoroughly establishing it, and 

 if a plant is found to quickly take possession of the soil and 

 cover it to the exclusion of all others, the fact of its not 

 being leguminous should not weigh against it. 



The ideal plant for the purpose of protecting rubber 

 land and eliminating or reducing very considerably the 

 weeding bill is a plant which grows not more than a foot to 

 18 inches high, is permanent or persistent for three or four 



