372 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



WEEDY V. CLEAN RUBBER ESTATES. 



Clearing Land to Avoid Denudation, 

 Erosion and Wash. 

 In continuation of our foregoing remarks we 

 cannot help thinking that very grave errors have 

 been made in the past — in fact, ever since the 

 early days of planting coffee which was confined, 

 we believe, to between 1,000 and 6,000 ft. An 

 old planter who is still with us and who 

 has, he says, given the matter an immense 

 amount of consideration, has now no hesi- 

 tation in denouncing : first, the very waste- 

 ful process of clearing our land by felling 

 and burning it off, which he says was done 

 simply to make a good clean surface and to 

 facilitate subsequent work. Taking the felling 

 first, he is convinced that the proper course 

 would have been, in order : to fell, pile and 

 burn the underwood — very small in the case of 

 heavy forest owing to the dense shade — ; then 

 road and drain, line, hole and fill in— the felling 

 contractor coming behind and felling the big trees 

 lopping, piling and burning one by one — and so 

 get all ready for the rains. In the case of Rubber 

 he thinks the following should most certainly 

 be the process : first, cutting good big V-shaped 

 holes, taking out the top soil for the first foot in 

 depth, placing it to one side and discarding the 

 bottom soil taken out, filling in the hole with 

 the fine vegetable mould just taken out, as also 

 that on the surface near the hole. This should 

 give the rubber plants the verybcst possible start. 



The present-day style of lining cannot, he 

 thinks, be improved on; but he points out that 

 in planting rubber on anything like steep land 

 every peg should have two holes so placed that a 

 line drawn from hole to hole will be 10 ft. apart 

 and lying at right angles to the hill and (or) 

 wash. It is best not to drain as usual, but cut 

 dead level silt-traps 14 ft. by 18 in. by 18 in., 

 sufficiently far away from and above the 2 plants, 

 to allow for future root and stem growth. Of 

 course, the silt-traps will cost something extra ; 

 but it is only 14 feet of drain really for every 

 peg, or 1512 feet of drain per acre. There would 

 be no other draining. Surely rubber is worth 

 it? The soil from the trap should be placed at 

 the upper side of the two plants and below 

 this trap, and so with the trap form a perman- 

 ent terrace or batrier against all future wash. 

 Surely, it is urged, our valuable rubber trees 

 are worth such treatment, which will make safe 

 and profitable the planting of our steepest 

 forests. Should the planter prefer planting 

 •20 by 20, or 15 by 15, then in either case 

 each plant should have its own silt-trap. 

 But, for all steep land, planting 10 by 15 or 

 10 by 20 is recommended, the 10 ft. being between 

 tlie rows, so as to admit of the one level silt-trap, 

 in every ca6e, protecting two trees. Our friend 

 would, therefore, recommend on easy or flat 

 land lining 20 by 20 ; but on steep land, at every 

 peg placing two plants 10 ft. apart in a line 

 against the wash. This would give about 216 

 trees per acre ; that is, if the ground is not very 

 rocky. Beyond growing a clump of mana grass, 

 in the centre of each square, sufficient for 

 mulching the ground round the young plants, 

 there being eight plants to a square, he would 

 strongly recommend dean weeding from the first. 



The mulching should be done immediately bo- 

 fore the dry season sets in, so as to develop and 

 preserve the feeding roots near the surface. The 

 mana plants should also be planted so as to 

 form an additional barrier against the wash, our 

 great enemy ; and no matter how the feature or 

 slope of the land changes, stick to the same 

 style of lining. Only in every case when land 

 is steep, stick in the two plants for each peg. 

 His idea is that if anything is to be grown the 

 first few years it should be something with which 

 the young plants may be protected from the 

 sun during our long periods of drought, prac- 

 tically our tropical wintering season — the in- 

 tense heat doing the work of the cold season in 

 Europe. Had good old King Coffee been 

 planted in hedges, such as suggested, with the 

 silt-catching traps above each set, Ceylon would 

 probably never have seen the terrible leaf disease, 

 and we might still be exporting our 1,000,000 

 cwt. per annum. The most common thing in 

 olden days, on looking at the soil being carried 

 down the hill in a heavy N.E. plump, was to hear 

 the planter exclaim : "See ! Offgoes our best top 

 soil — down the Mahaweliganga— toTrincomalee." 



RAMIE WOOL. 



The last issue of Capital contains a communi- 

 cated article, which gives a description of 

 a new development in connection with ramie 

 that promises, if successful, to make the 

 fibre one of the most useful employed for 

 textile purposes. The trouble hitherto in 

 connection with this fibre has been that the 

 processes of decortication and degumming have 

 been so unsatisfactory that the fibre has lost 

 much of its value for industrial purposes. It 

 is now stated that a Mr.R G Orr, of London, has 

 invented processes and machinery by which the 

 ramie is made to produce something entirely 

 different from the material hitherto obtained 

 by mechanical or chemical processes. Mr. Orr 

 calls the product ' processed ramie,' and he 

 claims that it can be shipped by the producer 

 to the manufacturer, who, by passing it through 

 a carding machine, can manufacture a material 

 called ' ramie wool ' which can be put to all the 

 purposes to which ordinary wool can be put, 

 from the manufacture of 'shoddy' to 1 woollen ' 

 goods that are said to compare most favourably 

 with the natural article. Mr. Orr estimates the 

 cost of treatment of a ton of dried ramie at 

 R7-8, and that the treatment will extract more 

 fibre than any other. If this is the case, there 

 is a bright future tor ramie in the East where 

 the difficulties already referred to have stood in 

 the way of its plauting being taken up more ex- 

 tensively by those interested in developing in- 

 dustrial resources. 



TEA IN NATAL. 



The Imperial Trade Correspondent at Durban 

 (Mr. ADC Aguew) reports that the area cov- 

 ered by tea plantations in Natal is stated to be 

 6,000 acres, two-thirds of which are in full bear- 

 ing. Last year's crop was 500 tons larger than 

 that picked in the preceding season, but it was 

 insufficient to meet the demand. The coming crop 

 promises well. — Board of Trade Journal, March 10. 



