so 



bluish clay below. It is so soft that you can, with the 

 slightest exertion push your walking- stick out of sight. 

 The water level is often only i to 2 feet from the sur- 

 face. It is the custom to drain the land prior to felling- 

 In order that the soil may have a chance to dry and 

 sink before planting operations are commenced. There 

 is hardly a stone to be seen on any estate; the land is 

 mainly flat. 



Weeds: A Lalang Killer? 



The weeding bill on most young estates in Klang is 

 a pretty big one. I have seen several blocks which have 

 cost 2 dollars per acre per month, and will cost 18 dol- 

 lars per acre for the next twelve months. Where Para 

 trees grow rapidly the weeds do the same. I have seen 

 that weed pest — lalang — so high as to bury the railway 

 boundary posts nearly five feet high; the cost of uproot- 

 ing the lalang is enormous. In view of the efforts being 

 made all over the Peninsula to suppress this weed, I 

 was particularly interested in a patch of lalang ground 

 on which the wild " passion flower " plant had been 

 placed. The latter had crept on the lalang, and only 

 occasional tufts of the grass could be seen. I was in- 

 formed that the wild " passion flower " plant has proved 

 itself capable of keeping lalang in check, and is being 

 largely used on several well-known clearings. 



Bukit Rajah. 



I shall never forget my visit to Bukit Rajah. The tap- 

 ping is the best I have seen in so far that the cambium 

 has only rarely been cut. I have, when visiting estates, 

 usually challenged the superintendent to find me a tree, 

 tapped for at least a year, which has not been injured. I 

 have been over a large number of estates, but it was on 

 Bukit Rajah that I saw the first perfectly tapped tree, 

 free from even a trace of a wound. An ordinary tree 

 has the knife along some part of it about 400 to 500 

 times per year, assuming there are ten tapping lines; no 

 •wonder the cambium is touched once or twice during 

 these operations. An ordinary gouge is used for tap- 

 ping — an implement surpassing all others for simplicity 

 and cheapness, and yet one with which an unlimited 

 amount of damage can be done. Yet it was on a pro- 



