AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 



No. 10.] OCTOBER 1909. [ Vol. VIII 



RUBBER CULTIVATION ON SO CALLED 

 PEAT SOIL. 



By H. N. Ridley. 



In many parts of the Malay Peninsula usually in the 

 vicinity of large tidal rivers, we find a somwhat peculiar 

 soil formation popularly known here as peat formation. It 

 consists exclusively of dead timber roots and decayed 

 leaves, to a depth sometimes of as much as twenty feet. 

 Often no trace of clay, stone or other mineral matter is to 

 be seen in it. The formation appears even if deep to be of 

 comparatively modern date, geologically speaking. Before 

 being cleared for planting it is seen to be covered with dense 

 wet forests, in which grow a number of somewhat peculiar 

 or local plants mixed with many trees which also occur on 

 more ordinary soil. A characteristic tree is the Kempas, 

 Cumpassia malaccensis, abundant too is the well known red 

 stemmed palm, Cyrtostaehys lacca and the ground is often 

 covered with an abundance of Gingers (Scitamineae) and 

 ground orchids. Walking through these woods one often 

 sinks deeply into a mass of wet decaying leaves, over and 

 through which lie the great roots of the big trees. Below 

 this great mass of decaying vegetation is usually a greasy 

 blue clay lying at various depths and apparently mainly old 

 Mangrove mud and over which this forest has gradually 

 grown. When felled and burnt this so-called peat after a 

 period of exposure commences to shrink, the surface of the 

 ground often soon falling a foot or more. The exposed 



