Chapter 15 The Raging Fire Settled to Dust

Within those fifteen long years Ken initially also reclaimed many large tracts of land within the plantation and have them rehabilitated with Oil palms much to the delight of the Boss.The new bottom roads he established lead to all those recoveries which were termed as "lebih punya" ( or unwanted extra land) by his predecessor.

Not only those but his request to top up the main roads with stones from the nearby goldmine was also approved.Ken spent a tidy sum of money over this.Actually that cannot be help as the plantation unlike others do not have laterites or river stones to strengthen their roads system especially the main road.

The long stretch of main road leading to the Mill was more than five miles from Kampong Sri Jaya.On rainy days these up and down slopes of this slippery road was almost impassable to heavy vehicles,so the laying of stones helped.It also had to be maintain regularly.So plenty of stand by stones were required.

Ken also co-ordinated with the other plantations to resurface the common interest entrance road to the plantation and also the bridge at the Village which was later ridiculed by the villagers as the caused of the Sri Jaya great flood.Actually that flood was caused by greedy developer who filled up the swamp near the village thus depriving excess rainfall a place to store its water.The narrow outlet along the main road proved too narrow to drain out the excess water.Thus the flood.

The bridge constructed with large calverts was dismantled but will the town be flooded again? Just wait for the next exceptionally heavy rain fall then they will know.Will they blame the bridge the government put up ? Villagers were villagers they had their own piece of mind many a times ridiculous and outrageous.

As time went by Ken's job became more interesting as he had view and visit plantation for sales.Ken was requested by the Boss to view and report back to him.At the beginning there was one plantation in Triang where he went with the first engineer.His job was to report about the condition of the plantation whereas the Engineer was to report about its Oil Mill.

Ken 's report was impressive but the Engineer gave a very bad report about its Mill.Actually he was right as the Mill was really very old but still running,so the Boss dropped that issue.

Next was the neighboring plantation where only Ken was told to go round with their Manager for a week.Ken gave an excellent report as the plantation also had sufficient laterites and plenty of river stones.Buying that property would be beneficial,saving a lot of money for road works in future and no necessity to apply a licence to transport river stones and laterites.

However the Boss had no interest as there was a clause in the purchase agreement where the Boss refused to accept.It was very unfortunate but he was the Boss.

There was also another 10,000 acres plantation in Trengannu Tengah.To go into that property must drive across a shallow river without a bridge. That plantation was in a very bad state.Part of the plantation was neglected and not in production for sometime.The abandoned part were therefore overgrown with thick bushes,it seem some elephants had made that areas their home.There were linesites which were also left abandoned and unattended.

Part of the plantation that was still in production was well maintained.Ken got a clearer picture from their office which was on a hill.The people were co-operative and gave ken all he required to know.Ken thus report back to his Boss what he saw.

Few weeks he visited another very much smaller plantation further interior about 0ne thousand odd acres.The main thing wrong with this plantation was it entrance road had to pass through a long stretch of roads from the plantation above.Apparently it had another entrance also another long stretch of road passing through many other plantations.

The plantation was beautifully planted up with oil Palm and with well established legume covers, but all still immature.On the far end was a wall of steep hill which was also planted.It was a magnificent to behold from a distance.

Ken's reported back just as he saw,the Boss dropped the idea of securing both.Then there was the plantation in Karak.It was a 5000 acres plantation which extremely hilly.Initial crop was rubber but the plantation was replanting to Oil Palm,so only about 1000 acres was Oil Palm.The rest were rubber and in full production.

The whole plantation was all right only thing bad was the entrance to the plantation for there was a bridge and after the bridge was a steep road leading to office as well as to the other fields of the plantation.That was the only point that deterred the Boss from buying it.

Ken also established an orchard of Durians at the back of his bungalow.Clonal durians fruited within three years of planting with Ken's method of planting.Many other fruits were also planted.

The Boss had interest in planting Jati for teak wood and Ken had to follow his instruction to plant them in the inter-rows of the Oil palms .The palm
grew well but not the Jati,Jati was slow growing on hill top and slope but by the sides of ravines it flourished beautifully.

The Boss was also keen on Joljoba and Ken was sent to attend a meeting introducing that crop.Some planting materials were ordered directly with all the seeds germinating very well,but those seedlings never survived more than two leaves in the nursery.So all efforts gone to waste.