9 



The Kulim irrigation has benefited the district where 1 10 acres 

 have been planted out of 250 irrigated. The rest will be planted in 

 1909. There are upwards of 300 acres of Para rubber planted. 

 Quite a number of Malays have planted Hevea brasiliensis in small 

 patches and it is doing well. For estates Malay labour is preferred 

 to Chinese or Indian labour whilst it is of the greatest benefit to the 

 neighbouring villages. 



{Supplement to the Penik Government Gazette, November 29, 1909). 



TILLED AND UNTILLED SOIL 



The operation of tillage has, for its primary object, the stirring 

 and loosening of the soil. When soil-particles are massed loosely, 

 as in a tilled field or garden, spaces exist between them, and these 

 spaces permit of free movement of air. If the particles are packed 

 together tightly, as in pasture land where the soil cannot be loosened, 

 there is comparatively little space between the particles, and conse- 

 quently the amount of air in the soil is but small. All grass land, 

 as compared with that under tillage, is insufficiently aerated, and in 

 most cases the older the sod the less well ventilated it is ; for, as 

 time passes, the soil-particles become more closely packed. The 

 i leal soil may be compared to a sponge, not only because of its 

 capacity for holding nutritive solutions, but because of its perme- 

 ability to air. There can be no question that the high productiveness 

 of well-cultivated soils is due largely to the greater amount of air 

 available for the roots. 



The presence of air ensures both oxygen and carbonic acid in 

 the soil. Oxygen is essential to the growth and well-being of the 

 roots of plants, no less than to the aerial parts. Carbonic acid plays 

 an important, though indirect, part in ensuring soil fertility by 

 bringing inorganic materials into solution and thus augmenting the 

 supply of mineral food-substances. 



Beneficial micro-organisms are found in greater numbers and 

 are better distributed in a cultivated soil than in compact and 

 uncultivated soils. These lower form.s of life, like the higher forms, 

 are profoundly affected, both as to their individual well-being and as 

 to their multiplication, by such conditions as food, air, moisture and 

 temperature, all of which factors are better regulated by cultivation. 



One of the object of tillage is to convert the soil into a suitable 

 living place for micro-organisms through the increased humus, good 

 drainage, ventilation and higher temperature. It is not unreason- 

 able, therefore, to assume that the greater number and better condition 

 of the micro-organisms in a tilled orchard contributes to the well- 

 being of the fruit trees. 



There is evidence t-) show that all plants, to a greater or less 

 degree, so change the soil in which they grow as to make it wholly or 



