and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



307 



of white cotton cloth is tied. The string will 

 thus have forty strips, which will mark the 

 place where one cutting of manioc is to be 

 put in the ground. 



The coolie pushes one of the pointed sticks 

 in the'earth in the middle of the first strip of 

 hoed land, and, unrolling the string, he walks 

 to the other side of the field, puts up his other 

 stick, and, making the string taut, drops a 

 cutting of manioc at every strip of cloth. Then, 

 measuring with his stick a distance of 5 feet, 

 he gets his second line in the middle of the 

 second strip of hoed land ; he drops another lot 

 of cuttings, and proceeds onwards until he has 

 completed fifty rows, or the quarter of his field. 



Coming back to the point he started from, 

 he puts each cutting in the ground, the head 

 end up, and in a slanting position, which 

 facilitates the straight growth of the bud which 

 is to form the stem. The coolie will thus have 

 planted fifty rows of forty cuttings, namely 

 2,000 cuttings, and the rest of the field will 

 be furnished in the same way, as much as 

 possible, after rain. 



Planting out Heveas. 



Holes for Rubber Trees. — The tirco has 

 now come to make the holes which are to 

 receive the Heveas. It would, perhaps, be more 

 regular to plant the Heveas before the manioc, 

 and, in this matter, the planter will be guided 

 by circumstances, but, as the cuttings of manioc 

 are all the better for being planted fresh, whilst 

 the young rubber can remain in the nursery 

 for a while longer without in the least suffer- 

 ing for it, it will generally be found more 

 convenient to proceed as I here show. We 

 shall have to throw away 4 cuttings of manioc, 

 at half of the holes made, so as to leave 5 

 feet free to each hevea ; but that is a very 

 small matter. The holes shall be made 20 feet 

 from one another, on rows 17J feet apart, the 

 first row of holes starting from the second 

 strip of untilled land. On this strip, and well 

 in the middle of it, we trace our first line of 

 5 holes ; the first hole at 10 feet from the 

 small drain to the right of the field. The 

 field being 100 feet broad, we shall have 5 holes 

 20 feet apart. The second line, 17^ feet further, 

 is the same as the 5th row of manioc. The 

 third line, 174 feet further, will fall between 

 the 8th and 9th row of tapioca, and so forth. 

 Where the lines of Hevea and Tapioca are the 

 same, we shall have to throw away, as just 

 stated, 4 cuttings for each hole,— or per row 

 of 5 holes, 20 cuttings. Each field (1,000 feet 

 long) will contain 57 rows of Heveas 17 J 

 feet apart, i.e., 57x5 = 285 Heveas. Where 

 the rows of Hevea fall in between the 

 rows of tapioca, we shall only have to throw 

 away 2 cuttings for each hole. We shall thus 

 have to sacrifice 20 young manioc on 29 

 rows, i.e., 580 and 10 on 28 rows, i.e., 280— in 

 all 860 per field. So that, finally, our field of 

 1,000 x 100 feet will contain 285 Hevea ( = 125 

 per acre) and 7,140 manioc plants. (200 rows 

 of 40, less 860). 



Cultivation. 

 When the planting is finished the ground 

 must be kept free from weeds. It has been 

 well said that a weed is a plant which grows 

 where it is not wanted. Everything that is 



not manioc or Hevea must be suppressed from 

 our fields. Two months after planting, the 

 rows should receive a light banking up, that is 

 to say, that the earth on each side is scraped 

 and ridged up at the foot of the young plants 

 to a height of 3 or 4 inches ; later on, this 

 should be repeated at least once, and just 

 before harvest, if the state of the titlds allows 

 it, the plough should be passed in between the 

 rows. The aim of cultivation, over and above 

 checking the growth of weeds, is to obtain a 

 soil as free and as mellow as possible, for it is 

 only by this means that the plants will be able 

 to give thick roots, and it is easy to understand 

 that this will not be attained if the earth is 

 allowed to press too hard round them. More- 

 over, the looser the earth is kept, the easier 

 will bo the pulling of the roots at harvest time 

 and the less risk of breaking them. If left to 

 itself, especially in very rich soil, the manioc 

 will develop stout and tall stems at the expense 

 of the roots. To check this, it is usual, on some 

 estates, to cut off the top at a height of 5 to 6 feet. 



Harvesting. » 



When used for food, the yams may be con- 

 sumed between 8 to 10 months. They are then 

 tender and very mealy, and may be accommo- 

 dated in many ways — fried, baked or wasted; or 

 simply boiled, after peeling, with a pinch of salt, 

 and eaten with a little grated coconut and sugar, 

 a form in which I often have it on my table. But, 

 at this period, the yams are very far from having 

 attained their full development, and, as regards 

 the yield in starch, which is the object which 

 more particularly interests large growers of 

 manioc, it is pretty certain that there is great 

 advantage in retarding the harvest to a later 

 period. This comes out clearly from the follow- 

 ing figures, obtained in Jamaica from five diffe- 

 rent varieties :— 



Starch per acre, in lb. At 12mths., At '8 mths., 



Variety. 1906. 1907. 



No. 1 ,. 5,322 .. 7,102 



No. 2 .. 4,107 .. 12,632 



No. 3 .. 2,388 .. 8,894 



No. 4 .. 2,384 .. 8,927 



No. 5 r .. 5,636 .. 16,813 



These figures go to show that in all cases, save 

 one, the amount of starch is more than doubled 

 by putting off the harvesting to the eighteenth 

 month, and, if we put against this increase of yield 

 the expenditure of upkeep incurred during the 

 six months of waiting, we shall find this expen- 

 diture much more than covered by the amount 

 of starch produced in the interval. The practice 

 of Chinese planters, who, as a rule, do not 

 harvest before the sixteenth to eighteenth month 

 is, therefore, fully justified. This applies, how- 

 ever, to the first crop only ; if a second crop is 

 raised off the same ground, it matures more 

 quickly, and a third crop will be earlier still, 

 being ready for harvesting in 10 to 11 months ; 

 but the yield of Hour in both cases is much less 

 than in the first crop. If manure is used, the 

 yield of Hour will be considerably increased in 

 these latercrops. 



Harvesting Methods. 

 Harvesting is done by pulling up the roots. 

 In very light soils this can be done by hand 

 after partly uncovering the roots, by a strong 

 tug, but, where the soil is heavy, a lever will 

 have to be used. A simple and effective one can 



