Follow Instructions
As a young assistant working in the plantation in the middle of 1960s following instructions is the rule of the day. This is so if you are planting your future and the Company's future. It means the new planting or replanting of rubber and oil palms. The transfer of the planting material from the nursery and planting proper must be properly supervised to ensure a high success rate.
In those days rubber planting was done with seeds, budded stumps and stumped buddings. Stumped buddings in simple language are young rubber seedlings of 1.5 to 2 years old which are pulled out from the nursery and planted straight in the field. These seedlings are either bare rooted or the roots are intact with a clod of earth. During the preparation of the buddings which are of 7 to 12 feet high they are cut at a certain height.
The command from the immediate superior was to cut seedlings at 4 feet height. When he went on leave Big Chief, the Group Manager paid a visit to the nursery where the buddings were being prepared. He was furious when he saw the short rubber stumps and immediately instructed the contractor to cut them as high as possible which was about 7 feet. It was miserable to receive 2 different instructions. The solution was to seek advice from the Deputy Chief. A good compromise was reached, that is, minimum of 4 feet and a maximum of 7 feet. Actually, it should have been at the juxtoposition of the green wood and the brown wood above a whorl of buds.
Hence the plantings in field were of different heights, the lowest being identified with the 3rd. boss who was really short. The trees of average height belong to the Deputy Chief who also happened to be of medium height, whereas the tallest ones are identified with the Big Chief who was a six footer plus.
At the conclusion it was all smiles when the General Manager visited and exclaimed " Oh, what a fine planting - CHEERS !!"
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