Jan. 1907.] 



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Saps and Exudations. 



though the original expenditure in planting them is much the same as when 

 the intercrop is planted alone ; cacao appears to be an exception to a certain 

 extent, as it lasts for many years under widely planted rubber, if properly 

 attended to. 



Interplanting with Herbaceous and Arborescent Species. 



Lastly we are left to consider the interplauting of rubber estates, no matter 

 what distance the rubber plants are from one another, with species which are of 

 value for shading, manuring, and other purposes. 



The broadcasting of seeds of Crotalaria striata, Vigna species, or inter- 

 planting the rubber trees with plants of Albizzia moluccana, or cuttings or plants of 

 Erythrina species (Dadaps) has been frequently recommended for experiment. It 

 is obvious that such a system cheeks, to some extent, the loss of soil ingredients, the 

 ground is shaded during the various seasons, a more uniform condition of soil tem- 

 perature and moisture is maintained, the weeds are kept in check, the roots of the 

 plants break up the soil, and a large amount of organic matter is available for 

 manuring the rubber plants. On the other hand, it can be argued that the inter- 

 planting of such species often interferes with the growth of the roots of the rubber 

 plants, the dense growth harbours porcupines, hares, pigs, and other rubber pests, 

 large stumps of trees are left in the soil, and their cultivation occasions additional 

 expense and reduces the labour force available for rubber work. 



This part of the subject has been so fully dealt with on previous occasions, 

 that it need not be further dilated upon. 



Recapitulation. 



It should now be clear that a single perfect system has not yet been devised. 

 There are, of the five systems here enumerated, two which it is difficult to believe 

 in, namely, permanent close planting and permanent wide planting ; the former 

 appears to me to be wrong in principle and the latter extremely wasteful. I am more 

 in favour of those systems, which, though faulty in many ways, allow of the rubber 

 trees being provided with increased root area as they advance in age and increase in 

 size, this to be done either by the thinning-out of rubber trees, intercrops, and other 

 plants, and the uprooting of the stumps of trees so treated. 



Moulds and Rubber. 



By T. Petch, Government Mycologist. 



As the market price of rubber is the final test to which all must submit, 

 and it seems to have been decided that mouldy rubber possesses some inherent 

 defects which justify a lower valuation than usual, the question of moulds and 

 rubber has assumed an importance which is scarcely warranted by actual facts. 

 Some mistakes, amusing to anyone but the producer, have arisen iu consequence. 

 One planter who thought that his biscuits ought to arrive in London as free from 

 each other as when they were packed took the trouble of dusting them with 

 French Chalk ; he promptly got a lower price on the ground that they were 

 mouldy. 



The collection of rubber at the Exhibition in September has made it 

 possible to compare the susceptibility to mould of the various forms of plantation 

 rubber, and the comparison becomes more valuable by the inclusion of the 

 numerous samples of rubber from other countriea which were presented by Messrs. 



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