300 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



so appreciated by European consumers, and, 

 what is no less important, so much in demand 

 in commerce, for the manufacture of alcohol 

 and of glucose, used in breweries, distilleries 

 and confectioneries, and for the making of 

 sizing used in the textile industries. 



Climate. 



Manioc grows well only in tropical re- 

 gions. It thrives best in an even temperature 

 ranging between 70 and 90 Fahrenheit. It 

 is, nevertheless, cultivated outside of these 

 regions, notably in Florida, but for fear of 

 frosts, which would be fatal to it, planting 

 and harvesting have to be done within limits 

 of time which do not allow the tubercles 

 attain their full growth nor maximum of starch. 



It can be planted in all seasons, but in com- 

 mon with all young plants, it likes moisture 

 at the start, and the best season for plauting 

 it would be a little before the end of the rainy 

 season. After that, manioc can stand drought 

 very well, and there is not much to fear from 

 droughts such as we get in Malaya. It likes plenty 

 of sun and light ; it does not grow well with 

 shade around or above it. Yet a warm atmo- 

 sphere tempered by occasional showers is favour- 

 able to the growth of the tubercles and gives 

 them succulence, whereas too much dryness 

 would tend to render them more fibrous, which 

 occasions more waste in the process of extrac- 

 tion of the starch. 



From what has just been said the climate of 

 Majaya, with its uniform range of temperature 

 and its well distributed rainfall, can be consid- 

 ered as an ideal one for manioc, and there is no 

 cause for surprise at the huge crops which have 

 bejn obtained of 25 tons of roots per hectare. 

 Difficulties of Soil. 



Soil. — Manioc, like all other plants with 

 starch-forming roots, takes more from the atmos- 

 pheric air than from the soil, and it, therefore, 

 prefers light and friable soils to heavy clay soils, 

 which cannot suit it unless they have been 

 drained thoroughly and broken up by the plough, 

 or, if the plough is not employable, as is the case 

 in new clearings of forest land, by a deep tilth 

 with the changkol. 



Here a question presents itsalf. Given that we 

 are considering manioc only as a catch-crop for a 

 permanent arboreal cultivation such as rubber, 

 coconut and such like (since it is only as such 

 that Government allows it), how are the vary- 

 ing requirements of these cultivations to be 

 reconciled ? 



In the case of the coconut, the question is 

 solved, the requirements of both coconut and 

 manioc being identical. But Heveadoes not 

 thrive in light soils of a sandy character ; it 

 wants rather a clayey, firm soil. 



The answer to the question is that argillous 

 foils, except when too low, too compact, and 

 undrainable (in which case they will suit neither 

 one cultivation nor the other), one very much 

 benefited by tillage and, their texture being 

 finer, they become, when divided, more pene- 

 trable to air and heat ; and they, henceforth, 

 offer all the advantages of lighter soils, with 

 a greater abundance of mineral elements which, 

 generally, are wanting in sandy soils. In these 

 conditions, they are capable of giving very high 



yields of manioc. This much said, it should be 

 stated that the work of tilling a heavy soil is 

 expensive, involving ploughing and cross plough- 

 ing, or double changkoling if the plough is not 

 employable. Moreover, unless the ground is 

 kept mellow, the pulling of the roots, at harvest- 

 ing, is more difficult than in light soils. Manioc 

 does not lequire much nitrogen, which enters 

 only for a small part in the composition of the 

 starch— a hydro-carbon. Morecver, as observed 

 pre/iously, it draws the greater part of its sub- 

 stance (carbonic acid, hydrogen, and oxygen) 

 from the air. Properly speaking, therefore, it 

 can hardly be said to be an exhaustive crop. 

 But no matter what crop we raise, it will leave 

 the soil the poorer if raised on the method 

 followed formerly by the Chinese, a method 

 which consists in extracting crop after crop off 

 the same land, without manuring or rotation, 

 and then, leaving th« land a sporting ground 

 for rank vegetation of lalang. The fairest ' ' alma 

 mater'' will run dry under such treatment, and 

 Government are doing right in checking the 

 extension of such cultivation in the Federated 

 Malay States. At the same time, lalang soil is 

 often not so hopeless, as it looks, and many a good 

 crop of tobacco or tapioca has been raised off' 

 well-tilled lalang fields. 



Laying Out the Estate. 

 After the forest has been cut down and burned, 

 the ground cleared, and the roads and drains estab- 

 lished, as shown in the Planter's Manual, the land 

 is divided into fields a hundred feet broad by 1,000 

 feet long, giving a superficies a little over two 

 acres and a quarter. Round each field a small 

 ditch, one foot-and-a-half broad and deep, is dug 

 which will serve the double purpose of carrying 

 the superfluous water to the roadside drains and 

 of apportioning each field. As a first prepara- 

 tion of the land, it is not necessary (unless it be 

 lalang land, when the whole surface will have 

 to be ploughed) to till the whole of the field 

 the first year ; this would only hasten the ap- 

 pearance of weeds, which, on the contrary, will 

 be retarded if the iand is left unbroken, for the 

 live roots of the primitive jungle preserve the 

 virginity of the land. But it is indispensable 

 that the strip of land on which the manioc is to 

 be planted shall receive a very thorough chang- 

 koling. By means of a measuring tape, each 

 field is divided accordingly into strips 5 feet 

 broad, which is the space to be given between 

 each row of manioc. Half of each strip, namely 

 two-and-a-half feet on which the manioc is to be 

 planted, is to be changkoled deep ; the other 

 half will be left untouched, except for the cutting 

 down of any bushes that spring up. We shall thus 

 have per field, 1,000 feet long, and 200 bands 2& 

 feet broad well changkoled, alternating with 200 

 bands 2| feet broad, left as they are. This, finally, 

 will give us a superficies of tilled land of 50,000 

 square feet which, at a price of fifty cents per 

 thousand square feet, will bring the cost of 

 tilling to $25 per field. 



Cuttings. 



Putting in the Cuttings. — After the fields 

 have been hoed, each coolie is supplied with a 

 string, 10) feet long (the width of a field), 

 attached at each end to a pointed stick 5 feet 

 long ; on the string, at every 2^ feet a strip 



