Chapter 2 Land Clearing

Above photograph of a tiny piece of land just cleared to be converted into an orchard.This piece of land belonged to a friend who had just acquired and cleared by him at a hefty price.Of course he was never a planter nor had the experience to cear a small patch of land.

Of course he had always dreamed of building an orchard on his own on retirement.The little knowledge he possessed were those of childhood gardening.Well to me that were a world of difference.Some knowledge childish gardening does make him a marvelous orchard planter.

 Very unfortunate in deed to have wasted so much to clear it.He brought the land for something like $ 90,000/= and had duly spent a similarly sum to clear it.An extensively huge price he paid for being hard headed and wanting to do it himself despite his inefficiencies.

He also refused to liscent to others advice or lend a ear when offered by the experienced but only accept coffee shops talk by some big talkers.Such big yawners talk no facts but talked big and rubbish.Most of them uttered sheer nonsense without basic facts or truths. 

He wasted not only his money which were not wisely spent and also tolling like a bull himself under the merciless sun to clear just two small acres.He might have worked through  brute strength to clear his fields.But what a sheer waste of time and money.Money not well spent.Well it was his money and should he be happy that was all that matters. Being ignorant were never a sin but to indulge foolishly ,.................blah.What can I say?.

Enough being said or too much of talking let settle straight into the subject of land clearing.The back ground laid another patch of land approximately two acres.That belonged to someone else.The land owner had passed away leaving the property to his children who had no interest in the land.

At a glance we find that property overgrown with a secondary jungle.The secondary jungle was overgrown and closely packed together with plenty of wild seedlings and shrups.Overshadowing those wild growths were many trees ,all wildly scattered in between.Many with girth not less twenty inches.The land in picture was originally similar.

I think to venture into that tiny jungle you have to slash your way into its interior.To clear it would be simple.Of course should it be cleared mechanically would be quite easier.But remember these fields were classified as padi planting areas.

 So all round would be low lying and heavy mechineries were impossible or expensive maybe accept backhoe.For two acres to recruit a backhoe could be expensive and they would  definitely charged exhorbitantly .This was why my friend spent a hefty sum with this method.

Given the option to clear it cheaply I would suggest to clear it manually.My method should be simple.Initially should you have no use for the existing bigger jungle trees,just cut them down first with chain-saws.On felling the trees cut down those branches or  shorten the lengths of those trees by cross cutting them.

Slightly stacked some of them to fesiltate burning.Next allow those cut down trees to dry under the hot sun.A month or so will suffice.Do not worry about the other existing wild seedling and shrubs,allow them be as it were.

When the time came for setting the cut and dried trees on fire.The fire should be set with accordance with the wind's blowing direction. Such being done the fire should burned furiously by now.

The glowing and heat of the fire will scorched or burned away many of the nearby wild seedling .This way those wild seedlings would be destroyed totally.After first burning  re-stacked of all unburnt branches to main trunks.Unburnt seedlings can then be chopped at below root level and dumped into the re-stacked timber to burn.

 This way you would have lesser wild seedling remaining to clear.The process should be repeated should there be left overs.In no time you will have very clean field.This would definitely cost you a fraction of what my dear friend spent.I think should you practice thus your clearing cost would not exceed five thousand ringgit.

Should I do it, this would definitely be much cheaper.I am writing from my past achievements.As a young planter my first replanting on my own was an abandoned old rubber area.The stand of which were old rubber seedlings.Huge trees you cannot find them these days.The stand per acre was about seventy odd trees per acre.

 Further the inter-rows were overgrown with wild rubber seedlings with many with girth more than fifteen inches..So thick were the under growths in the inter-rows that no one can walked through it.

Being inexperienced I panic at its sight.Worst of all I had no estimates to work with.The Boss expected me to clear it as cheaply as possible.I gave that a lot of thoughts Some one suggested that I slashed up the inter-rows first. I know but that would costly Similarly poisoning those wild seeding would also not worked well  besides expensive.Those days we still had 2,4,5 T  tree killers.

Having much thoughts I decided to cut down the old rubber stand first.Those days rubber wood were not in demand yet,so to clear them I  have to burn them away.With the huge trees sawed down I had them trimmed or cut to shorten the length and size of those big branches.

The cutting proves valuable as that packed the branches together which later fesilitate easier burning.No one were acceptable to perform all these  chain sawing on contract . I was forced to pay them on a daily basis.That I did but  was never costly as I had anticipated.

 When the time came for setting the cut trees on  fire,we had a fantastic burnt out.The wind and the weather were very kindly to us.When the first burning were fully accomplished we had a sufficiently excellent cleared field.

Following we re-stacked it with a "Chokra" gang.A "Chokra" gang consisting of young workers( both males & females) attracted from the nearly by "kampong" at a cheap cheap cost.What held me in great esteem and  astonishment were that all those wild rubber seedlings.They were burnt and destroyed by the fire beyond regeneration.

Just imagine what a relieve it was for me.No more extra costing to eradicate them.For me it was an achievement never to be forgotten.That also won me recognition from my employer.Of course I felt immensely proud of that achievement.

Well coming back to that field should I were to do it on my own,I would definitely do it slightly differently.I valuable those existing bigger trees.Therefore I would slashed the area initially.When cutting down the shrubs,bushes and small wild tress i would at the same time extract out those sizes of wild trees which can be used as stickers in whatever I plant in future.Thus I would have saved some money when  required them in the orchard in future.

When slashing all those wild growths do not waste time cutting those which cannot be slashed with parangs or knives. Cutting those would slow down the slashing job.Following I would  chain saw all the bigger trees .Chain- sawing selectively.Those which were useful allow them to be left standing.

Destroy all unwanted trees.On cutting them down I would extract what ever useful timber from them Cutting them into suitable lengths extra and stacking away for future used.Those with huge girth can be turned into stools otherwise saved back as future firewood.Using them as fencing posts were not advisable as these were perishable under our weather.

The bigger timber can also  utilized into the fabrication of a log cabin.Crazy my it seem but that can be a reality left in my hands.If possible simply stacked all unwanted lengths of trees.Allow unwanted trees and slashed weeds and trees to dry under the hot sun for sometime.When the time came for setting the burning.A complete burning can be expected at a minimuin cost..