388 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



WEEDING IN PARA RUBBER 

 CULTIVATION. 



BY J. B. CARRUTHERS. 



Mr. J. B. Caeeuthees— on Clean Weeding 

 foe Rubber Estates — writes an interesting 

 article; we reproduce it in full hereafter from the 

 Straits Agricultural Bulletin. The views he 

 puts forward will be found amplified in 

 his Administration Report, which has been 

 ready a good many weeks, we understand, 

 but not turned out with great celerity by the 

 F. M. 8. Government Printer. He emphasizes 

 the necessity of conserving everything one can 

 in the soil that will be useful to rubber - a 

 forest tree, and not a shrub or bush, like 

 coffee and tea which may be affected by the 

 consumption of soil nutrition by weeds and 

 perhaps require less assistance in root growth. 

 He is advocating the green manuring policy 

 which Mr. Bamber has done for Ceylon, for 

 some time — but in an even more emphatic 

 way ; Mr. Carruthers is revealing himself (after 

 his observations in Malaya) as an out-aud-out 

 opponent of clean weeding, and a counsellor 

 to Britishers — 



They change their skies above them 

 But not their hearts, that roam — 

 to lay aside their prejudices, or knowledge of 

 home farming ideals, and recognise the forestry 

 work involved in rubber-growing, and the im- 

 mense need of conserving moisture, and prevent- 

 ing wash, exposure to sun, and loss of nutrition. 

 We commend his remarks to local planters, espe 

 cially those whoso rubber is set onsteep lan d. 

 MR. J. B. CARRUTHERS' VIEWS. 



Rubber cultivation in the East is a comparati- 

 vely new industry and has not the advantages 

 of long experience to help in deciding as to the 

 best and most economical modes of cultivation. 



BXFKEIENCE GAINED IN GEOWING COFFEE, TEA, 

 CACAO, &C., 



has been used in determining methods 

 for the conduct of a rubber estate and 

 it is perhaps natural that a successful tea or 

 coffee planter should cling to those which he 

 has found of value in his previous agricultural 

 experience. In the same way the methods used 

 in the cultivation of tea, coffee, &c, were to 

 some extent the results of experience gained in 

 England and Scotland in the growing of turnips, 

 wheat, cabbages, &c, in a temperate climate. 

 The desire to retain his own methods in a foreign 

 country, even when those methods are suited 

 specially to his home land, is a British charac- 

 teristic. Forms of Government, clothes, games 

 and other habits of life are introduced into 

 countries whore the climatic conditions are very 

 different from that of his own country. 



In agriculture this characteristic has led in 

 some cases to improvements in native methods 

 of cultivation but has also frequently caused the 

 adoption of methods admirable in Europe but un- 

 suitablefor tropical and sub-tropical climates. In 

 the case of weeding, the practice which obtains in 

 the cultivation of cereal crops in a northern 

 country cannot be of great value in deciding 

 what should be the method adopted in growing 

 trees as a permanent cultivation, in a country 

 where the temperature and moisture are always 

 favourable to rapid plant growth, where the sun 



is so powerful as to dry up all moisture from 

 the surface layers of the soil, and where the 

 rain often descends so heavily that in one day it 

 may pour on the earth as much as in six months 

 in England. 



In rubber cultivation it is advisable to attack 

 the question without preconceived ideas and to 

 use only the experience of conditions similar to 

 those under which the rubber is to be grown. 



THE RUBBER PLANTEE'S OBJECT. 



The object of the rubber planter is to produce 

 healthy vigorous rubber trees containing large 

 supplies of latex as quickly as possible. The 

 climate in Malaya is for such a purpose ideal: 

 sunshine and rain and a moist atmosphere of an 

 equable temperature —the conditions aimed at 

 iu a forcing house. The soil cannot be described 

 as rich, though it is physically good and allows 

 the passage of water and air — both of which are 

 necessary for vigorous root action. Various 

 writers on the subject of growing rubber have 

 recommended the use of shade trees for grow- 

 ing young rubber and used as an argument the 

 fact that wild rubber trees in Brazil grow in 

 dense shade, yet those who have seen the 

 healthy rapid growth of para rubber trees grown 

 in the open in Malaya and observed their height 

 and girth are satisfied that such conditions are 

 suitable, probably the most suitable, for the 

 vigorous growth of young rubber. 



The conditions to be aimed at for the portion 

 of tho plant above ground are an equable, moist 

 climate with a temperature not too high for the 

 healthy growth of the plant cultivated. These 

 conditions we have all the year round in Malaya. 



THE CONDITIONS TO BE DESIRED FOE ROOTS 



are briefly;— a soil so constructed physically 

 that it is not too loose to retain the water, 

 necessary for growth, and yet not so close as to 

 become water logged and prevent the access of 

 air, which is also necessary, the soil must pos- 

 sess a sufficient amount of nutritive substances 

 for the formation of plant tissue. The soil must 

 be moist and shaded, for these are the conditions 

 under which the formation of plant food in the 

 soil takes place. The conditions present for the 

 development of roots of rubber trees can be and 

 are very largely dependent upon methods of 

 cultivation ; and it is not difficult to see that the 

 methods at present adopted are not calculated to 

 produce the best results and are at the same 

 time costing a large sum of valuable labour. 



The coffee or tea planter in Ceylon and Malaya 

 is a firm believer in clean weeding and has per- 

 haps never seriously considered whether this 

 method is suited to all cultivations in all cli- 

 mates. Weeding is practised in the corn fields 

 and gardens of Britain ; therefore it should be 

 used in the plantations of the East. 



CLEAN WEEDING 



is good farming. A good farmer at home is 

 known by the freedom of his land from weeds 

 ergo a good planter in the East must Show bare 

 earth between his plants. But the conditions in 

 the two cases are totally different : little or no 

 harm is done in Britain by exposing the soil to the 

 sun and rain; incalculable harm is done by expos- 

 ing good friable soil in the tropics to baking 

 sunlight and downpours of rain. The cultivations 

 are different and the growth of cereals, roots or 

 other temporary crops in England can have 



