AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 

 No. ii.] NOVEMBER, 1905. [Vol. IV. 



A BARK FUNGUS ON PARA RUBBER. 



In the Agricultural Bulletin Vol. Ill p. 173, a fungus from Para- 

 rubber trees in Sandakan was described. This fungus takes the form 

 of a pinkish white mass, coating the bark irregularly, so as to have 

 an appearance often of hieroglyphics. Attacking usually the upper 

 branches or occasionally the stem it quite destroys the bark and 

 causes the death of the wood beneath. Fortunately it is easy to see 

 from its conspicuous whitish color, and easily dealt with by destroy- 

 ing infected branches, and in the case of the trunk being affected by 

 scraping it off and treating with copper sulphate and lime. 



Hitherto there has been no record of it in the Peninsula but Mr. 

 R. BURGESS sends a stick covered with it from Sungei Siput in 

 Perak. He writes that he has seen a few trees- suffering from it on 

 Plang Estate. It attacks the upper branches of the tree which die if 

 not attended to. The Manager, Mr. PHILIPS, says that a mixture of 

 Lime and Copper sulphate appears to kill the growth of the fungus 

 and many trees have been saved thereby. It is by no means wide 

 spread, appearing only occasionally on a few trees, and no serious 

 damage is done ; any branches found to be affected are immediately 

 cut off and burned. The tree from which the specimen was taken 

 is about 3 years old, planted ten by ten on the side of a hill with 

 coffee interplanted at the same distance looking perfectly healthy 

 and showing excellent growth. 



The close planting in this case confirms my suggestion made 

 previously that this is really the cause of the development of the 

 plant a somewhat similar pest occurring on bushes of Strobilanthes 

 and Ramie in wet weather chiefly when overcrowded and is another 

 reason for planting further apart if any additional reason were 

 wanted. The treatment adopted by Mr. BURGESS is the best pos- 

 sible under the circumstances and by means of this system it should 

 not be difficult to prevent this fungus from becoming seriously 

 injurious, but planters must of course keep an eye on any appearance 

 of the plant and treat it promptly. In tall trees it may be difficult 



