and Magazine oftfie Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



"Prom t lie one of happy go-lucky amateurishness percei- 

 vable in some of I he Rubber Companies of recent birth, il 

 would seem as if the management of an estate is, in their 

 eyes, a matter of small concern. The little seed, which is 

 put in the ground, is evidenLly expected to do, by itself, 

 all the work of growing into tine fat trees, bulging with 

 milk. We can now understand how it is that estates of 

 1,000 acres to 1,600 acres of land, in great part tappable, of 

 land on which £150 to £181 of capital had been raised per 

 acre, are left in the hands of an underpaid manager with 

 one assistant. To such, all that is here written is pure 

 fudge. The past history of these countries is unfortunately 

 full of the dismal failures of such ill-eonceiveo ventures. 

 But there are also earnest workers, and they are many, who 

 do not trust to the sole aid of Providence and who know full 

 well, that huge undertakings such as we hear of, are not 

 to be brought to the paying stage by haphazard manage- 

 ment and that a good equipment is the first necessity 



The author then takes us very fully into the 

 subject of the Asiatic agricultural labourer, more 

 particularly the Chinese, Javanese and Tamil 

 classes. A chapter on lalang grass concludes 

 the first part of the book. 



In the second part he deals with the Hevea 

 tree itself, and its cultivation. The opening up of 

 the estate and all the attendant operations of 

 roading and draining, etc., different kinds of 

 soils, nurseries, planting out, &c, carry one 

 through six interesting and informing chapters. 

 Then we get to " Field Work," and the impor- 

 tant subject of distance in planting. On this 

 subject, still one under discussion in the last, 

 we make the following interesting extract : — 



Close Planting.— Close planting was generally adopted 

 on the older estates and most of the acreage under rubber 

 is planted at distances of 12 fee t to 15 feet. Now, there are 

 very good reasons of economy for not giving a tree on an 

 estate more room than it absolutely requires for its normal 

 development: Having ascertained by experience, and by its 

 habits of growth, that the liberian coffee-tree, for instance, 

 can be brought to its full fruit-bearing capacity, on the 

 space enclosed in a circumference of 12 feet diameter, which 

 allows 290 trees to the acre, it would serve no purpose to 

 give it 13 feet, which allows only 239 trees as that would 

 mean a larger surface to keep clean, an extension of the 

 road and drainage system of the estate etc.; it would mean, 

 in fine, increased working expenses for smaller crops. There- 

 fore the trees should be allowed no more space than is ne- 

 cessary for them to give their full crop. But, under pretext 

 of economy, to squeeze the trees in a space that will not 

 allow them t > attain their normal size, and thereby to re- 

 duce their future rubber-yielding capacity appears to me 

 eve= more wasteful than the other way, besides involving 

 undue risks of disease to the plant. Practically. The limit 

 to the rubber-yielding capacity of the Hevea is reached 

 when there is no more bark left to incise on the nether 6 

 feet of trunk which is the easiest accessible part of the 

 tree, and that which yields the most latex (barring the roots). 

 Therefore, anything that tends to reduce the attainment of 

 girth, and thereby of bark, is unsound, and that is what 

 close planting at 10, 12, 15 feet comes to. 



ONE KEASON GIVEN FOR CLOSE-PLANTING 

 wis that it prevents branchiness, which it undoubtedly 

 does, and that the tree having already a marked tendency 

 to branchiness, this should be checked and thus, a higher 

 range secured for the future tapping of the tree. This was 

 anticipating the practice of high tapping, at present in 

 vogue on some estates. But I cannot look upon high tapping, 

 with its concomitants of ladders, unsteadiness in the work 

 of incision, lessened yield of latex, as anything but 

 a "pis-aller." It should not be an aim; and as 

 for the necessity to prevent branching, I may be allowed 

 to repeat what I wrote some years back:— 



" Considering that the first branching does not as a 

 rule begin before a height of 8 to 10 feet of the trunk ; con- 

 sidering, also, that it is an easy matter with the pruning 

 knife, to check any tendency to too early branching I 

 do not see the force of the abjection to its branching, at a 

 height above the milk-yielding region, while I see a very 

 considerable advantage in securing as large a stem as 

 possible, affording a broader surface." 



In the light of experience gained since, these words re- 

 main true, and close-planting with a view to checking 

 branching, and obtaining a long tapping surface will soon 

 be considered as a heresy and a costly one. In fact, the 

 notion is already so far belated that the very reverse is now 



advocated by some writers who recommend topping the trees 

 to induce forking. Yet, close-planting is still practised on 

 some estates with the idea, when overcrowding takes 

 place, of thinning out, i.e. of felling a proportion, say one 

 out of two trees, after cropping them of all the rubber they 

 can give." 



M. Mathieu has some interesting remarks to 

 make under this heading which we venture to 

 quote : — 



In 1803 I wrote :— "Judging from the Hevea seen in these 

 parts, I would say that 15 to 18 feet interspace between 

 each tree would meet its requirements. This would give (15 

 by 15) 190 trees to the acre in a poorer soil and (18 by 18) 

 130 in a richer soil. In very rich soils such as are found in 

 parts of Sumatra and Borneo, I would probably adopt very 

 much wider planting, viz: 25 by 25 feet." In the presence 

 however, of the ability of the tree to stand much heavier 

 tapping t han was then thought prudent for the safety of the 

 tree, I must admit I now think those distances too small 

 for the reason that the heavier the tapping, the greater 

 the surface of the bark must be in order to be able to 

 apportion the incising, in such a way that the bark shall 

 have time to renew itself, between one tapping and the 

 next. Open planting undoubtedly favours increase of girth 

 and for that reason I recommend wider distances between 

 the trees. Of course, if we push matters to extremes and 

 hold to the hard and fast rule that a tree should have all 

 the space its branch and root system can cover, we should 

 probably have to allow each tree 30 to 10 feet or more, since 

 the oldest trees we know of ,30 years old already cover more 

 than that surface of spread. 



The author advocates for Malaya 20 feet 

 between the trees. We know that manuring is 

 being done in various estates in Ceylon for the 

 three objects which M. Mathieu puts forward : 

 (1) Making up for soil exhaustion ; (2) Giving 

 to the soil the constituents it lacks ; (3) Has- 

 tening growth by promoting increased activity 

 in the organs of nutrition, roots and leaves, 

 and thereby quickening the formation of wood. 

 Of burnt earth as a readily acquired manure 

 the author speaks highly, and he thus describes 

 how it should be prepared : — 



A gang of, say, 10 men should be put to this work for 

 one month during the period of driest weather. They col- 

 lect, with the rake, all the dead wood or fallen branches 

 and dried leaves or twigs, cut the rank grass and small 

 shrubs growing about and put all up, in heaps 4 feet high ; 

 then, with the changkol, they pare the top soil all round, 

 and collect it in their earth baskets ; it is spread on the 

 heaps ; 30 basketfuls will suffice to cover one heap com- 

 pletely on all sides. The heaps then present the aspect of 

 earthen cones. A small opening is made below and fire is 

 applied to the dried leaves inside ; when the fire is well 

 on, which is seen by the smoke issuing from the sides of 

 the cone, the opening is completely closed, and a slow com- 

 bustion goes on inside during 2 or 3 days, after which the 

 heaps can be opened to cool, and the burnt earth applied 

 when wanted. 



We do not know that the somewhat drastic 

 operation of root pruning Hevea trees has been 

 recommended by other authorities on rubber 

 cultivation. But it is well worth referring to 

 what the author under review says on this point. 

 He remarks — and doubtless some of our readers 

 will be willing to give their opinions in these 

 columns on M, Mathieu's statements : — 



Cutting the roots of Hevea will sound as a heresy to 

 many, and so it is, as long as the roots, finding adequate 

 sustenance in the soil, are able to discharge their func- 

 tions of supplying the tree with the materials that go to 

 building it up. So long as these conditions last, the roots 

 keep on throwing out young feeders in every direction 

 ahead of them and, through them, drawing greedily the 

 food stored for them. When, however, the roots have 

 reached the limit of their hunting ground, their spread- 

 ing must cease ; then, they coil up and form into tangled 

 masses through every inch of the ground until, space 

 lacking, they cease throwing out young feeders; their 

 texture hardens, becomes leathery and, from that time 

 their activity slackens, and growth also. At that time, 

 I have found that a partial and light cutting of roots, 

 at the extremity of their feeding ground, revives them 

 to a wonderful extent. The opening of the ground causes 

 moisture to penetrate deeper into the earth and the roots 

 strike, at an angle, lower down the soil into new layers ; 



51 



