Chapter 9 The Conversion To Palm Oil

To convert to Oil Palm there was an abandoned field about 1oo acres to be replanted.Unfortunately the inter-rows of that field was filled with wild rubber seedlings some as as 14 to 16 inches in girth.Those so overcrowding that slashing was almost impossible but definitely costly.I have tried to poison them with 2-4-5 T but proved to be too costly and difficult.

The old rubber stand was about 70 trees per acre.So I worked out a plan to cut them down first.At that moment rubber wood was of little value and the huge size of the trees offered no consolations at all.To hire a felling contractor was almost impossible with most of them courting extremely high cost.Nevertheless felling had to be done so I enrolled a contractor to fell those trees on manwork days basis.That way they accepted and a gang of few chainsaw men were employed.

The huge size trees almost frightened all the sawyers away athough a few stayed back to work.I even simplified their job by allowing them to cut the the trees with few off cutting of main branches.That way I managed to have all the trees down within two months.The Contractor absconded as soon as work was about to complete,for he did not pay some of the workers.Another was sudsequently recruited to all other neccessary cuttings of branches.

Those trees were left to dry by the merciless sun.A Malay contractor was recruited to obtained casual workers to stack the cut branches where ever possible.When sufficiently dried those stacked were set on fire.The fire really put me total astonishment as it burnt furiously.The burning not only burn away all its wood and branches it also burned away those wild seedlings crushed down by those rubber trees and all those around it.

The burning took away those wild seedlings down to its roots system.The pit soil when exposed to the sun also dried up quickly and began to catch fire as we continued burning.That explained the fantastic burning destroying all the wild rubber seedling to deep down into the soil burning away those awful rooting of the wild rubber seedlings.It surely was a blessing in disquish.What planting method,there was none.I broke all therules in clearing this field.Most important I had it done at a minimum cost.

We had anticipated a high clearing cost but.............................................................well the Lord was with me.

It was no easy task as re-stacking and re-staking over and again, were necessary all the way.I surprised everyone including the Boss that I was forever present on the spot of work under the hot blazing sun.There were staffs to aid me but not one of them reliable.The Senior Conductor was the son of one of the Directors and he could hardly take the sun.His only job was weighing of latex.Then there was a junior conductor seemingly lazy and raw.

That hot and blistering sun was forever merciless couching everything,sure it assisted our clearing.I had it completed before the onslaught of the rainy season in October.It was pain stalking effort to clear this field having to endure the full blast of the sun all the way.Nevertheless I completed it and the cost extremely low.That surprises the Boss who were unwilling to replant it as they estimated that it would cost them heavily.My experiences were proving what I am capable of. Easy well,just try to clear it at my cost.

The D x P Chemara seedlings were already well established for transplanting into that field.We had our nursery by the canal where water is easily available for daily watering.Springklers were fitted where ever necessary for water to reach all the seedlings in the nursery.The seedlings were than a year old when we transplanted them.

The field had a very good drainage system for replanting to rubber,but we were now replanting to Oil Palm,so the drainage were no more useful neither did I decide to cover them up but allowed them be.The lining was done by me without any contractor.Now the Boss knew what I was made of,not the talk the work,but work the talk.Sweet talking was never my trade mark.My work was.

Soon with the beginning of the rainy season we were ready for transplanting as the planting holes were also ready.On the first day of planting my Boss requested me to fetch in his friend to see my transplanting first thing in the morning.We arrived back at the plantation about 8.00 a. m. and went straight to the replanting field.Likened an experienced planter he went straight to the palm planted and surprised everyone by kicking it to test its firmness.

"See,Mr.Cheah,planting not firmed",he said proudly with hands in his pockets.He was a man of short stature,wearing sockings and well polished brown leather shoes.Surprised at his moved, I replied,"Mr.Lee I only just came in with you,should that be not firmly planted that could be easily be rectified immediately, no need to kick the plant.Should you be good sufficiently take over from me.Go tell the Boss what you encounter".He kept mum.

With that I shouted at the "Malay Mandol".Learning what I wanted done immediately he ordered all the workers to add more soil to the planting hole and pressed on them firmly.All were corrected immediately in front of our Mr.Lee.As he walked away the Malay mandol asked,"Siapa orang ini,Tuan,macam "Samseng",tedang pokok.Sadikit hormat orang2 yang menaman pokok itu,pun tiada".Meaning who was that man kicking the palm without due respect to those who planted it acting like a gangster.

"Dia orang kaya,Boss punya kawan",I replied."Boss,Boss pun,macam mana,kena hormat orang2 pekerja juga,kalau Tuan tiada bahru dia tahu lah",he replied.Later I explained to Mr.Lee that I was not at the field earlier at the first transplanting as I had to fetch him.I explained that I also did not have capable staffs accept for the Malay Mandol.With that completed I sent him home to Kuala Lumpur.On the way he told of his planting exoeriences as a pineapple planter on his own plot of land in Klang.

Very soon we arrived at his home at old Klang Road.From what I see I now knew that he was a patrol station owner selling Mobil Gasoline etc.His patrol station was in the middle of two roads, one going uop the other going down.That Gas station was no more in existence presently.The whole stretch of the road was now widened.I learned that he later became the Manager of Bidor Bahru Estate,Bidor,Perak.Before that plantation was ran by by my friend,another of his cousin.I knew him as Lee Shing Chin.I wander what has become of this joker,should be kicking lallang I was told.

Well.it takes all types of people to become planters I for one was another.Many of Malaysian planters were through inheritance,while others like me had to struggle our way up.Chinese plantation owner never trusted the Manager fully.Funny thoigh when employing European Manager they dared not bully them.What ever it was Plantation owner always have spies knocking around reporting back unneccessarily,causing many untold problems.How to moved around with these jokers were alone another experience in Chinese owned plantation.I think I had mastered that after so long in it.

Enough said about that man sent by the Boss, I went on to complete my transplanting before the rainy season was over.Leguiminous cover plants were established at the same time.With successfully transplanted up ,I further went on to cut down the all the existing clonal seedlings fields as returns from them were not good at all.With that successful transplanting I was quick to convince my Boss to replant all those low yielding fields one at a time.

Fortunately this time around rubber wood was in demand for brick factories around Selangor areas,and with these fields I easily recruited a contractor to remove all the rubber stand incuding a complete burning, without any cost for the clearing. Thus our replanting cosdt was extremely low,only for transplanting cost and the planting of leguminiuos cover crops..In fact all those fields were transplanted at a minimun cost.

Within the next five years there were already harvesting of fruits.In this latter stages there was a demand for rubber wood with its introduction into the furniture business.Rubber timber did fetched a beeter price.In fact the contractirs were paying for the timber to be extracted plus their willingness to burn and clear all remains there of.Should the owner refused that the contractors were ever willing to give a free round of plowing and another harrowing.With all these incentives given by the felling contractor the transplanting were then accomplished with any actual cost.

Another thing a planter need to know all its boundaries when taking over a plantation be it on transfer or other wise,for I have learned that there were many surveying mistakes especially when the kand was brought over.Many atimes the boundary stones had been moved by people uinknow or by people out to steal some land form either way.During my stinct at St,Andrew I have discovered by surveying that the adjacent small holder had planted into the plantation land for a period who knows maybe from the beinning.

Some five acres and slightly more perhaps might be nothing to a big plantation owner but
to a small holder the gain were enormously huge.To a Chinese plantation owner it was likewise as big,so mt recovery was valuable after all.We recovered that small piece of land without any hitch.It seemed to me that that owner knew it all along until we take action he waas reaping quite substantial profits for a long,long time.Thus I ended his small fortune.

With the surging prices of Palm Oil ,our crops were churning in profits.This sssssshowed that what I did were exeellent and gain praises from all the Bosses.Armed with those success the Boss allowed me to take down more low yeilding fields leaving fields witn high yeilding clones only.Only clones like RRIM 600 survived my onslaught.

Within a period of five to six years I was able to convert almost 805 of the fields to Oil palm.The good fortune was with me all this while as the prices of Palm oil surged further and further upwards.The profits made the Directors extremely happy.

Further to replanting I also started to plant Cocoa on a trail basis. Actually it was the Boss suggestion as the price of Cocoa was also surging higher and higher,much to the envy of all the Directors.Well,I just went along with his idea and ordered the cocoa planting materials from Bagan Datoh Estate.As normal I had the nursery by the canal side where watering were easy,and by the side of the Oil Palm seedlings.

A plot in an area of RRIM 501 was selected for the planting.As the area was already a wind damaged area ,all I did to cut cost was only to poison the rubber stand without felling them.The Cocoa responded very well in growth,within a short peiod of about one year plus we were already getting a little crop.Ripe cocoa harvested were sun dried as the amount was too little to warrant any construction a drier.

At that moment the price of cocoa was seemingly attractive and the Boss ordered me to purchase further planting materials,with intention to plant up the whole field with it.One thing which bothered us was the rampant pilfering of the fruits.Easy to steal and easy to sell,with ready buyers every where.So there was a lot of suggestions how to apply our securities to the fullest to prevent any eventual stealing.Well,I was allowed to try out various methods including the breeding of dogs.It did not work of course.





To be continued...........................................
to be continued.................................