March, 1909. J 



213 



Saps and Exudations. 



should be necessary, but iu the case of 

 land which is thoroughly permeated 

 with the underground stems of lalang 

 or with the roots of other weeds it 

 may be found that during the first two 

 or three months weeding is necessary. 

 The crotalaria seed is sown broadcast. 

 As to the quantity to be used per acre it 

 is better to sow more than is necessary 

 than to leave bare patches where weeds 

 can thrive. Mr. Lauder Watson, who is 

 the first Federated Malay States planter 

 to use this plant in rubber planting, 

 informs me that on Lauderdale, where 

 photograph of crotalaria was taken, 

 he used about 7 lbs. I have seeu good 

 results from using only 4 lbs. per acre, 



Mimosa pudica, the " sensitive plant, ' 

 which was another of the plants sug- 

 gested in the last annual report, is in 

 many ways the best of all plants to put 

 down as a substitute for weeding. In 

 many cases it has taken less trouble to 

 establish this plant than crotalaria, and 

 it thrives extremely well iu the Malayan 

 Peninsula on varying soils. The peculiar 

 habit of shutting up its leaves when 

 touched is in its favour. When rain 

 falls at all heavily the leaves shut and 

 the water reaches the soil at once, but 

 when the sun shines again the leaves 

 open up and protect the soil from its 

 rays. 



My experience of this plant is that 

 while it grows well on sloping and dry 

 land it seems to enjoy more moist 

 conditions and can be seen iu great 

 vigour in ravines and flat places where 

 the moisture is more abundant. 



Desmodimiitriflorum, a small creeping 

 shamrock-like clover, has the advantage 

 that it grows only a few inches high and 

 covers the ground with a turf easy 

 and pleasant to walk on. It is, however, 

 more difficult to establish, and as it seeds 

 very sparingly, it is not easy to obtain 

 any quantity of seed for planting. On 

 one estate some two hundred acres has 

 been successfully laid down with this 

 plant by taking it from neighbouring 

 waste land and planting it as soon as 

 the land was cleared. 



The question of the best method of 

 establishing one or other of the substi- 

 tutes for weeds or clean weeding is being 

 experimented on both at the Experi- 

 ment Plantations of this department 

 and by various planters who are alive 

 to the great advantages to be gained 

 if they can cover their ground with a 

 friendly plant. By far the best time 

 to establish one of these plants at a 

 minimum cost is directly the land has 

 been burnt off. In virgin land after 

 burning no seeds of herbaceous plants 

 are alive iu the soil, and any seeds sown 



or plants planted have no competitors 

 and quickly take possession of the soil. 

 Having once got the plant established 

 all the danger of lalang or other weeds 

 gaining an entrance, and the immediate 

 necessity of putting rubber in is over, 

 since the fields do not get any worse, 

 but rather better for the reception of 

 the rubber plants; and the cost of cut- 

 ting away the crotalaria, mimosa or 

 other plants to put in lines and holes is 

 very little. Drains are not necessary or 

 even useful, and thus another expense 

 is saved. The only weeding necessary is 

 in case jungle trees or shrubs sprout, and 

 these can easily be noticed among the 

 prevalent growth of a single plant and 

 removed. No soil is lost from the 

 beginning of the opening of the land, 

 aud the gain in this to the roots of the 

 ruober plant is not to be neglected. 



The chief arguments, and they are 

 many and oonstant, against the adop- 

 tion or even the trial of the abandon- 

 ment of weeding in favour of a green 

 manure are: That it has never been 

 done in rubber or iu other tropical 

 products, an argument which is always 

 used to discourage any new departure. 

 That the plants suggested will take 

 possession of the laud to the exclusion 

 of other plants — weeds. This can be 

 met by an appeal to experimental plots, 

 and as far as I have observed where 

 care is taken and money spent, even 

 in two or three-year-old clearings, these 

 plants cau be established in a short time. 



It must be remembered that even if 

 30 per cent, of the surface of the land 

 is covered by harmful weeds, and the 

 rest by one selected plant, it is probable 

 that the rubber will grow more vigor- 

 ously than in cleau weeded fields, and 

 with no cost for weeding. 



That the thorns on the Mimosa will be 

 a nuisance to coolies getting about the 

 estate. This argument is used without 

 considering that by putting in green 

 manure, the number of coolies whose 

 work will take them, into the field is 

 very small and their legs can be pro- 

 tected. The only reason why coolies 

 are needed iu a field properly covered 

 by the green manure is to search 

 for white ants and to put in any 

 supplies ; the latter work will very 

 probably be lessened by the fact that the 

 shaded ground gives very much better 

 conditions for the growth of the young 

 rubber plants than its exposure to sun 

 and rain. 



That the appearance of an estate 

 would be against it in the eyes of a 

 valuer. The answer to this is that when 

 the valuer or retired planter, to whose 



