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the efforts of planters to obtain more Tamil labour and a stream of 

 Chinese sinkehs reduced prices to a more normal level. Malay boys 

 of 12 years of age are able to earn 40 or 50 cents a day as tappers, 

 and work is over by IO-30 or II a.m. 



The formation of companies continued with unabated activity 

 and there are now 35 companies at work in Malacca with a capital of 

 over $15,000,000. Several large blocks of lalang land — formerly 

 tapioca estates — were taken up on special terms as to premium and 

 rent. It has been practically shown that lalang land can be brought 

 into a state of cultivation without excessive expenditure, and Govern- 

 ment will be able to demand for the future a small premium. The 

 leading company is the Malacca Rubber Plantations, and the directors 

 and managers have done iriuch in 1910 to consolidate and improve 

 its position. It is a matter for regret that in the case of one company 

 floated at the zenith of the boom the capitalization is much inflated. 

 It is estimated that about 100,000 acres will be planted with rubber 

 by the end of IQII. 



One would really have liked a fuller report of the Agriculture of 

 Malacca than this, which, short as it is, however, gives some idea of 

 the vast progress made in Malacca since the cultivation of rubber 

 was started. 



Tapioca is said to be " exhausting to the soil " and naturally the 

 amount of material taken out in removing the roots is so much loss 

 to the soil, but there is no reason why some of the actual waste 

 should not be replaced on the land. There is, as nearly always has 

 been, a great feeling against tapioca as a catch crop, based originally 

 on certain very bad cultivation, but it must be remembered that there 

 are not a few thriving rubber estates which were started with tapioca 

 as a catch crop. 



The statement that it has been found an active source of Fomes 

 does not seem ever to have been proved. At present we have not yet 

 seen a sample of tapioca attacked by Fomee. This point should be 

 investigated. It is not usual for a hard wood-eating fungus like Fomes 

 to attack a soft pulpy thing like a tapioca root. 



It is quite clear that the cultivation of rice and means of dealing 

 with the pests of it requires much attention. In former days District 

 Officers used, we beleive, to report to the Resident Councillor as to the 

 state of local crops from time to time. These reports were, however, 

 never kept or put on record, we believe. They would have been in- 

 valuable records to any Agricultural Department investigating the 

 state of cultivation in previous years, and in working out the causes 

 of disease, 



