Fibres, 



502 



[December, 1910. 



Intertilled Crops. 



During the first years one can plant 

 other products between the young trees 

 provided care is taken not to plant too 

 near to them and not to touch the roots. 

 It is best to plant between the trees such 

 products as require much sun. It must 

 be remembered, however, that the kapok 

 tree during a great part of the east mon- 

 soon has no leaves, and that all plants 

 feed on the soil, so that manuring may 

 be necessary. 



A plant much used between kapok trees 

 is pepper, grown on the trees, but when 

 pepper grows well, the lowest branches 

 of the kapok, say, up to the height of the 

 pepper, will die off, tor which reason it is 

 recommended not to let the pepper grow 

 too high, but to cut it down after the 

 harvest every year to a certain height. 

 Pepper must not be planted with kapok 

 before the trees are three years old. If 

 nothing is planted between the kapok 

 trees it will be very useful to keep the 

 soil covered with some kind of legume. 



The Harvest. 



Under favourable circumstances the 

 kapok tree begins to produce in the third 

 year. As only a very few regular kapok 

 plantations exist at present, it cannot 

 be stated how large the production will 

 be. A favourably situated plantation 

 in the centre of Java, where extensive 

 and regular cultivation of kapok exists, 

 yields during the fifth year about five 

 piculs of pure kapok from 250 trees per 

 bouw. Older plantations give more kapok 

 than younger ones. Sometimes isolated 

 and very strong trees yield much larger 

 quantities, and cases have been known 

 where one tree in one year gave 1 picul 

 of clean kapok, but this is of course 

 exceptional. 



The kapok flowers about the end of 

 the west monsoon or the beginning of 

 the east monsoon. The fruit ripens to- 

 ward the end of the east monsoon. When 

 the fruit is ripe it has a yellow-brownish 

 colour. It is necessary then to harvest 

 as soon as possible, as otherwise the fruit, 

 when hanging too long a time bursts at 

 the top end, whereby the rain gets in- 

 side and the cotton is blown out by the 

 wind. 



It is recommended to open the harvest- 

 ed fruit as soon as possible and to take 

 the cotton out. If this is not done 

 quickly the colour and the gloss get 

 spoiled. Also if the fruit has been wet 

 by rain it is better to take out the cotton 

 before drying it. 



It is very bad to cut off the fruit before 

 it is ripe, and by fermentation try to give 

 the cotton the appearance of being cut 



ripe, as has been done recently on ac- 

 count of the high price of kapok- Such 

 a product is always inferior, and its pre- 

 sence in a few bales can considerably 

 reduce the value of the whole. In case 

 the heavy rains or late harvesting make 

 it necessary to collect the last fruit in an 

 unripe state, such products must be 

 always kept separate and sold as second 

 quality. It is also very bad to moisten 

 the kapok so as to increase the weight. 



Methods of Ginning. 



The seeds are separated from the cotton 

 by beating with sticks. Small quantities 

 of kapok are usually cleaned by hand. 

 The kapok is usually laid on bamboo 

 tables and beaten with thin bamboo 

 sticks, so that the seeds drop through 

 the bamboo and the kapok remains on 

 the table. When in large quantities the 

 kapok is cleaned in mills consisting of a 

 horizontal cylinder of wood or iron with 

 rows of pins placed perpendicularly on 

 the inside of the cylinder. Inside the 

 cylinder a shaft turns round on which 

 pins are put in such a way that they 

 almost meet those in the cylinder. At 

 one end of the cylinder the kapok is 

 put, while at the other side there is an 

 opening for taking out the cleaned 

 kapok. Over the whole length of the 

 bottom of the cylinder, wire netting 

 is placed, through which the seed can 

 drop. Such a mill can be operated by 

 hand or by machine. Other machinery 

 for cleaning kapok is not used in Java. 



It is of great importance that no seed 

 should remain, for if the kapok contains 

 even a few of them it has a bad effect on 

 the market price. Formerly the kapok 

 was beaten till the curly part of the 

 cotton disappeared altogether, but lately 

 this part is preferred so that the kapok 

 must not be beaten more than is neces- 

 sary to get the seed out. The weight of 

 cleaned cotton in one pod is about one- 

 half the weight of the seed. 



Baling and Shipping. 

 For shipping, the kapok is packed in 

 bales by means of hydraulic or hand 

 presses of more or less the same character 

 as those used for tobacco. The weight 

 of a bale is about 36| kilos with dimen- 

 sions of 53 by 75 by 99 centimeters. 

 These are the dimensions immediately 

 after pressing, but they vary slightly as 

 the kapok expands considerably after it 

 has been pressed. To prevent this, some- 

 times two bales are put together in the 

 press with iron hoops. As the freight is 

 calculated by measurements, it is of im- 

 portance to have as small bales as possi- 

 ble. Still the kapok must not be pressed 

 till it loses its springiness as it thereby 



