Miscellaneous. 



160 



August, 1909. 



lalang— whose underground stems pene- 

 trate deeply, and ramify in all directions. 

 In this way the surface soil is broken up. 

 As the grass grows up and dies down, 

 a quantity of organic debris begins to 

 collect, and iu course of time affords a 

 suitable nidus for the growth of shrubs 

 and forest trees. It it were not for the 

 lalang, the afforestation of such waste 

 land would take a very long time indeed. 

 But unfortunately lalang is very treach- 

 erous to get rid off, and is very fatal to 

 the growth of young plauts. There are 

 very few tree seedlings that can survive 

 in the struggle for existence. Even 

 suc h hardy trees as the coconut palms 

 become sallow and sickly and eventually 

 stunt and die. Para Rubber trees make 

 a brave struggle, and it' there is euough 

 humus in the soil, soon outgrow the 

 lalang, and if closely planted may force 

 the latter to die out on account of the 

 shade. 



Tne method of stamping out the lalang 

 must be carried out systematically. As 

 soon as an acre or so of the land has 

 been ploughed, holes 3' x 3' are dug out 

 at about 20' intervals, and filled with 

 manured humus, the seeds of labu— the 

 bottle gourd, or of other species of 

 quickly growing cucurbitas are sown. 

 The young plants quickly spread all 

 over the ground. In the meantime, the 

 ground is turned up a second time, the 

 stems of lalang being thrown up, collected 

 and burned. 



In a couple of months the gourd has 

 flowered and withered away. Again, the 

 land is hoed, and then as a rule some 

 atropaceous plant such as chillies or 

 egg-plants are planted in beds. The 

 ground is by this time well freed of 

 lalaug, and is scrupulously weeded. The 

 young plants, replanted usually from a 

 nursery, are manured with a diluted 

 mixture of ripened excreta and water 

 daily or thrice weekly. The chillies are 

 well nigh exhausted about four months 

 from the time of planting. They are 

 generally succeeded by a crop of sweet 

 potatoes, after which the land is allowed 

 to lie fallow for a couple of months. 

 Then the weeds are ploughed up and 

 used as green manure mixed with farm- 

 yard compost. 



Briefly the order may be stated cate- 

 gorically. 



1. Chillies. 



2. Some legumiuous plant. 



3. Sweet potaboe. 



4. Tapioca. 



Indigo is a favourite leguminous plant 

 to be cultivated. It requires very careful 

 manuring, and generally yields three 

 crops of cuttings— after which the land 

 is allowed to rest for a few months, 



By careful tillage and judicious manur- 

 ing, these Chinese vegetable gardeners 

 are able to make use of the poorest land 

 available and to obtain good returns for 

 their toil and investment. When lalang 

 land has been thus reclaimed, it is not 

 unprofitable to plant it up with rubber 

 between the vegetable grown. 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT 

 SOCIETIES. 



(Prom tho Journal of the Board of Agri- 

 culture, Vol. XV., No. 6.) 

 Agricultural credit societies or banks 

 are combinations of small farmers or 

 labourers formed for the purpose of rais- 

 ing capital to be advanced at a reason- 

 able rate of interest to members re- 

 quiring tempoiary loans for the purpose 

 of reproductive undertakings. The small 

 holder, the labourer with an allotment, 

 the market gardener, or the small village 

 tradesman may occasionally require a 

 loan to enable him to make purchases 

 on favourable terms of such require- 

 ments as live stock, seeds, manures or 

 implements, and it is to meet this want 

 that the establishment of agricultural 

 credit banks has been urged in England. 

 Among the "peasant proprietors of the 

 Continent, these co-operative loan so- 

 cieties have proved very successful, and 

 iu districts where small cultivators are 

 sufficiently numerous there seems no 

 reason wby the methods which have 

 proved successful elsewhere should not 

 be adapted to meet local conditions in 

 England. 



Limited and Unlimited Liability. — 

 There is, however, no one method which 

 has been uuiversally adopted abroad, 

 and even as regards broad general princi- 

 ples, there exists the widest diversity. 

 The continental societies may, however, 

 be broadly divided into two classes, 

 those with limited and those with un- 

 limited liability of members. The latter 

 type isi>erhaps the more largely develop- 

 ed, and it was on this basis that the two 

 main systems of credit, called after 

 their inventors the "Raiffeisen" and the 

 " Schulze-Delitzsch," were first founded. 

 The main features of banks of the "Raif- 

 feisen " type are (1) that no shares are 

 issued, the capital being raised by 

 entrance fees, subscriptions and deposits, 

 and loans bearing a fixed rate of inter- 

 est ; (2) that the liability of members is 

 unlimited, every member being jointly 

 and severally responsible for any losses 

 that may be incurred by the society ; (3) 

 that the loans advanced by the societies 

 are for reproductive purposes only, the 

 borrowers being required to satisfy the 

 managing committee that the object for 



