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conditions does not obtain, it is common to see wounds right down to 

 the wood. The results of bad tapping will be noticeable in about four 

 years' time when the irregularly renewed surface comes to be tapped 

 again ; the tapping will then be very difficult to carry out arid still 

 more difficult to carry out without again increasing the damage. Some 

 of the oldest trees in various places in the Federated Malay States are 

 an object lesson in what may be accomplished by bad tapping; little 

 blame can be attached to the original workers, who had to learn by 

 experience how to tap and how not to ; but estates with trees now 

 being tapped for the first time should profit by others' experiences, as 

 upon the quality of the present tapping a good deal of their future 

 prosperity will depend. I strongly recommend that all wounds to 

 the wood in tapping be immediately painted with cold coal tar. This 

 draws attention to bad tapping and saves attack by wound-fungi and 

 borers. 



Overtapping, especially of young trees, is another procedure to 

 be avoided, though still too common doubtless owing to the high price 

 of rubber. No system that does not provide a four j^ears' renew^al of 

 th-:- bark can be described as sound, and I think this is recognised by 

 most planters, although some may not be able from various reasons 

 to adopt such a system. 



The manufacture of rubber may best be described as still in the 

 experimental stage, neither buyers nor sellers knowing sufficiently the 

 kind of rubber that is best for manufacturing purposes. What is 

 most wanted in the industry is a simple and reliable test for the 

 strength of rubber as it leaves the plantation factory, comparable to 

 the polariscope test for sugar; I may add that such test is, so far as I 

 can tell, not in sight, and rubber now can only be judged by colour 

 and general appearance, until after it has been vulcanized. At present 

 there seems to be preference for smoked rubber, and many estates are 

 contemplating the erection of smoke houses and will be turning out 

 smoked sheet largely in place of the hitherto favoured crepe. The smoke 

 houses are usually two-storied, the rubber being hung, as taken from 

 the rollers, in the upper, while fires are kept going below; openings 

 of various sizes and descriptions are made in the floor between 

 the two stories. Cocount husks form about the best fuel obtainable 

 in large quantities, and it is quite probable that estates which have 

 coconuts planted up as a secondary crop will find them of great value 

 for this purpose alone, as the demand for husks will increase con- 

 siderably in the next few years. The movement appears to be quite 

 a sound one, as there is little doubt that properly smoked rubber is 

 actually stronger and better than unsmoked, apart from all temporary 

 fashionable demands. 



Two fungoid diseases of rubber alone call for mention: root 

 disease due to Fomes semitostus, and die-back due to Thyridaria 

 [Diplodia) tarda. These with other diseases are treated more fully in 

 the report of the Mycologist appended. Root disease is very com- 

 monly present in plantations and is responsible for a considerable 



