With the large amount of useful work, both chemical a 

 entomological, which lies to 

 the Department of Agricultui 

 equipped for its work until it has its own technical officers to 

 devote themselves to the problems on which knowledge must be 

 gained before progress can be made. A step in this direction 

 has been definitely taken, and a Government Mycologist, Mr. 

 W. J. Gallagher, m.a., a distinguished student of plant 

 pathology, has been appointed and will take up his duties early 

 in 1907. 



The compilation of statistics relating to agriculture has been 

 begun by the department as will be seen by the tables which are 

 published in this report. Every effort has been made to make 

 the figures accurate and dependable, but with a rapidly growing 

 industry like rubber, and with a scattered native cultivation like 

 coconut plantations, absolute accuracy is almost too much to 

 hope for. The error may, however, be considered to be very 

 slight, probably 5 per cent, at the outside, and it is not unlikely 

 that as errors exist both in exaggeration and understating, that 

 the figures given may be the mean. 



Soils and thlik Analysis. 

 The subject of the physical 

 soils is, in an agricultural country 



decent investigations have shown that there is another factor 

 m ™ e relatlve qualities of soils which is of equal or perhaps 

 greater importance than the chemical and physical composition, 

 ZunA t0 I is the bi °losical condition of the soil. The 



i ar U "u anC " ° r de nciency of nitrifying bacteria or bacilli very- 



Th^nvL"?- 116 ^ 68 th , e amount of p lant food available in the r ; 



The investigation of soils from this point of view is a branch of 

 in vZ^r 1 ! : u S V? its Infanc Y> and methods have not as yet been 

 invented which allow of comparatively rapid tests being made. 



Tr P u R S ?k bactenol °gical laboratory has been initiated by Dr. 

 General and Director ^ the Java Agricultural and 



on in V CG ; nvesti ^tion Station. From the work carried 

 ^t^^^^^^ wil1 be S ained ° f 



in th^h" iCal ^^on of local soils here will be carried on 

 Mala st ?° f u he Apartment of Agriculture, Federated 

 nay Mates, when they are completed. 



of cfji U ' K ^ LWAY Bambe *> F.I.C., f.c.s., Government Chem^ 

 during'* 1 ? a weII - kn own authority in tropical agrkultu^ 

 mg the P ast year paid a second visit to the Federated Mala> 



