419 



with a view to obtaining knowledge as to planting methods 

 in the Federated Malay States. Messrs J. L. Shand, T. C. 

 Huxley, G. C. Alston and T. S. Ruys (Rotterdam) and 

 others making use of the Department of Agriculture, 

 Federated Malay States, which is becoming more widely 

 known as a source of information in regard to agricultural 

 and botanical questions ; and its foreign correspondence has 

 increased to a considerable extent. 



This report has been written rather hurriedly, as I am 

 leaving the Federated Malay States, being transferred to 

 the West Indies, and I take this opportunity of thanking my 

 colleagues in the department, many planters and others who 

 have helped me in my work. 



I regret extremely leaving Malaya with its unique 

 climatic advantages, where agriculture has such a prosper- 

 ous future in store. 



My work of organising and equipping an Agricultural 

 Department has been most interesting and not entirely 

 without success. 



The Department of Agriculture is now becoming or- 

 ganised and is a working wheel in the mechanism of the 

 country. 



The future of Agriculture in the Malay States is a 

 bright one, and the Department of Agriculture will have a 

 large share in helping on the prosperous career of rubber, 

 coconuts, rice and many other profitable cultivations, both 

 existent and to be. 



J. B. CARRUTHERS, 



Director of Agriculture 

 and Government Botanist, F. M. S. 



REPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT MYCOLOGIST 

 FOR THE YEAR 1908. 



Para rubber (Hevea braziliensis), the principal cul- 

 tivation owned by Europeans, has been fairly free from 

 fungi during the past year, except of a disease which attacks 

 the root, finally killing the tree. This is wide- spread. 

 There was probably not an estate free from it, some suffer- 

 ing more than others ; but the percentage of trees affected 

 is everywhere comparatively small. The disease is caused 

 by Fomes semitostus, and is reprobated as much for the 

 extra labour demanded to suppress it as for the actual loss 

 in trees it causes. I published a paper in the " Agricul- 

 tural Bulletin," for November, 1908, describing the disease 



