The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



too lazy to clear their lands : so why do it for 

 them ? Also in my opinion lantana is one of 

 the finest things ever introduced ! It is a per- 

 fect land preserver and prevents most other 

 noxious things from growing. I would almost 

 as soon buy 10-year-bld ' lantana ' land for plant- 

 ing any product, for cardamoms for instance, 

 as buy forest !" 



—This is a truly valuable bit of planting ex- 

 perience and should for ever pi event our lan- 

 tana being spoken or thought of as an unmiti. 

 gated nuisance. It is, indeed, very far from that^ 



Nov. 24th. 



Dear Sik,— The letter of " Anti-Lantftna" and 

 that of " North of Kandy Planter" reproduced in 

 editorial go to show how apparently diametri- 

 cally opposite statements can be made by looking 

 at a subject from diamotrically opposite points 

 of view ! 



The fact is that lantana forms excellent secon- 

 dary jungle, and much has been written in the 

 past on this point : but as we all know, a plant 

 out of place is a weed, and as such cannot and 

 must not be tolerated. 



No sensible man will object to the clearing 

 away of lantana from road-sides and similar 

 situations where it is an unmitigated nuisance 

 —keeping out light and air, harbouring insects 

 and fungi, blocking drainage and suppressing 

 the growth of useful grasses. 



I do not find fault with the man who looks 

 out for lantana land for the cultivation of carda- 

 moms, &c, or even grows the plant (where 

 possible) as a renovating rotation crop, but that 

 is a very different thing from allowing lantana 

 (or mimosa, or crotalaria— valuable nitrogen- 

 gatherers) to over-run our highways and by-ways 

 and invade our gardens.— Yours truly, 



BURNING PRUNINGS. 



Nov. 20th. 



Dear Sir,— One great objection to this opera- 

 tion is the risk to the tea bushes. Cases are 

 known where considerable damage has resulted. 

 — Yours truly, 



PROPRIETOR. 



[We understand that the information de- 

 siderated by Mr. Petch as to how much nitro- 

 gen is removed in the prunings, &c, has been 

 fully worked out and is in the possession of a 

 well-known proprietor and V.A., who is also 

 a member of theGangaruwa Experimental Com- 

 mittee.— Ed., C.O.) 



CLEAN AND IMPERFECT WEEDING. 



A striking illustration of the value of quite clean 

 weed ng is afforded by the case of two Uey Ion es- 

 tatesof 600acres each. The one wasclean weeded 

 at a cost of 50 cents per acre after being at- 

 tended to for a few years. The other taken in 

 hand when in a dirty state cost Rl 50 per aero, 

 and it can easily be seen which is the more 

 economical — clean weeding from the beginning 

 or neglect of weeding. In 30 years there would 

 be a saving of £45,000 through clean weeding. 



WEEDING V. CROTALARIA. 



(To the Editor, Malay Mail.) 

 Dear Sir, — The experiment mentioned in 

 your leader of the 30th October, of a planter 

 who gives the Director of Agriculture "carte 

 blanche" to weed bis estate for him [i.e., an 

 unnamed estate of 900 acres.— Ed. CO.] will, no 

 doubt, be followed with great interest by many. 



There are, however, a number of obstacles to 

 overcome which will be found more difficult than 

 appeared at first sight. Leaving alone the risk 

 incurred by a man allowing his estate to be e 

 perimented with by a non-planter who has never 

 before done so on a large scale, leaving also alone 

 the very difficult position of a scientist and 

 Government officer embarking on an enterprise 

 which has, to t,ay the least of it, no precedent — 

 let us merely assume that all the preliminary work 

 on that estate has been done satisfactorily. 

 You will find that between now and that date 

 at least six months will have to elapse before 

 any results can be shown to the anxiously wait- 

 ing planter ; all those interested know that this 

 delay means the spending or saving of many 

 thousands of dollars. 



Having written a good deal about "Weeding 

 v. Crotalaria,'' I feel it almost a duty towards 

 those interested in the question to produce 

 proofs of my statements. I am not in a position 

 — fortunately — to show 900 acres costing §3 

 per month ; but I have in my charge, out of 

 1,500 acres, some 300 which at one time, cost 

 more than that and which, consequently were 

 put under crotalaria. Of the latter I can show 

 some 2^ years old, 40 acres of one year and the 

 balance varying from eight months downwards. 

 Contrary to the opinion of the average planter, 

 as mentioned in your leader, no difficulty has 

 been found in repeating on a larger scale the 

 experiments begun on a small one. I feel con- 

 fident that observations made on 300 acres 

 would be quite as instructive, if not more so, 

 than if made on four times the area, and 1 

 therefore have much pleasure in inviting you, 

 or any gentleman introduced by you or the 

 Director of Agriculture, to inspect the crotalaria 

 fields I can show on my Company's estates, here 

 or in Perak. 



I was on the point of compiling some data 

 and figures concerning the best way of plant- 

 ing, quantity and cost of crotalaria seed re- 

 quired per acre ; cost of planting and sup- 

 plying ; weight of prunings obtained during a 

 given period and extent of area which can be 

 covered by same ; also comparative growth of 

 rubber and coffee surrounded by crotalaria or 

 clean-weeded ; but as no doubt theue figures, 

 coming from the Department of Agriculture, 

 would be of greater weight, I shall be glad 

 to allow the Director of Agriculture or a group, 

 of planters to collect all these data here through 

 a suitable person appointed by them. 



In the course of a few weeks conclusive 

 information could be published which would 

 settle, one way or the other, the burning ques- 

 tion of " Weeding v. Crotalaria." — Yours, etc., 

 W. R. Rowland. 



Perhenti < ■< Tinggi, Nov. 1st. 

 —Malay Mail, Nov. 3, 



