386 
Under ordinary circumstances, pine-apples are planted on hill 
slopes, often densely packed together and the ground is kept clean 
weeded. In a couple of years, the surface of the land is quite denuded 
of humus, the loss due more to rain than to the action of the pine- 
apple plants. Little more than cutting off the fruit is done by the 
cultivator, and no wonder the land is impoverished in six years. When 
properly cultivated, and the surface of the soil is duly attended to 
pine-apples are good as catch-crops to be inter-planted with Hevea 
Braziliensis. What are the essentials of a good catch-crop? 
A plant suitable as catch-crop must have the following 
qualities * 
(1) It can grow without interfering with the rubber or retarding 
the growth of the latter. 
(2) It must mature and fruit early, 
(3) It must not have woody roots, which may become liable to 
be the sites of disease. 
(4) It can be easily removed without much cost and without 
doing harm to the roots of the rubber trees. 
(5) It must not harbour diseases of an infective character. 
When properly planted, pine-apples fulfil the above 
particulars. But it is advisable not to use this form 
of catch-crop, unless the plantation is close to a canning 
factory or to a town, where the fruit can be sold at a good 
price. Far away in inaccessible localities, the high cost of 
transport makes it unprofitable to use pine-apples as catch- 
crop and this question alone should guide the planter in 
deciding whether pine-apples are suitable or not, apart from 
other considerations— especially as pine-apples will flourish 
in all localities suitable for the planting of rubber. 
When a planter has decided to use pine-apples, he must deter- 
mine the system of spacing his rubber trees. On the whole one must 
recommend wide planting, allowing for avenues 30 feet wide and trees 
15 feet apart to form the sides. Thus planted 30 by 15 the Hevea 
trees will develop to the best advantage both their root and leaf 
systems. 
The pine-apples should be planted 3 feet away from each rubber 
plant, and the lines should be so arranged on hill slopes that they 
serve as terraces to prevent too much wash from rain water. In this 
way, we can get in say about 2,000 pine-apple plants in an acre. 
They flower in 15 to 18 months and thus a first crop is certain in the 
second year. In the third year, a large and a secondary crop may be 
expected. After the fourth year, the crop begins to deteriorate unless 
the plants are properly looked after. The main cause of the deteriora- 
tion is that the pine-apple is purely a surface feeder, and as usually 
the soil on which it grows has been allowed to become completely 
denuded, and no attempt is made to restore to the ground the 
