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growth a certain proportion of rubber trees in varying stages of 

 development or decrepitude. So far indeed has the eagerness of some 

 persons outrun their discretion that our officers continually find 

 rubber being planted by occupiers who hold their lands by virtue 

 of temporary licenses only and are liable to removal at the end of 

 every year. In such cases it is of course neither the intention nor 

 the wish of the Government that the land should be planted with 

 products of a permanent nature, and some difficulty is being ex- 

 perienced in impressing upon these people that their endeavours to 

 join the ranks of the rubber estate proprietors are not justified by 

 the conditions of their tenure. 



On the whole therefore it may be assumed that there are a very 

 large number of rubber trees growing all over the State which have 

 not been and cannot well be taken into account inframing the above 

 estimates. 



The arrival of additional areas at a tappable age and the un- 

 precedented rise in the market value of the product have continued 

 to largely augment the amount of rubber exported. 



The figures relating to the past four years are these : 



1906 681,040 lbs. 



190;- 1.198,751 „ 



1908 2,128,176 „ 



1909 4.209,733 „ 



The duty received was $76,553 in 1908 and $250,530 in 1909. 



There are those who hold the opinion that it would have been 

 preferable in some instances if young trees had been allowed another 

 year of growth before being operated on, but the market value of the 

 article has been a powerful factor in convincing proprietors and 

 managers that early tapping is stimulating to future development. 



With the assistance of the Director of Agriculture much value- 

 able work has been done in the direction of combating and restricting 

 pests and diseases, and no enemy to the rubber tree has made such 

 headway as to cause serious alarm. The white ant and the fungus 

 known as*'fomes semitostus " have their origin in the decaying 

 stumps and roots of the jungle timber which preceded the rubber 

 — their presence is usually discovered in time by careful periodical 

 examination, and the damage, if any, is of local incidence only, but 

 the radical and somewhat expensive remedy of extracting and re- 

 moving all such timber is now being not uncommonly resorted to. 



The attention of planters has been directed to diseases of the 

 shoots and branches, and a knowledge of the appropriate remedies 

 promulgated by means cf pamphlets and lectures by the Director 

 of Agriculture. 



At the instance of the United Planters' Association an important 

 measure was enacted at the close of the year providing for the licen- 

 ting and supervision of all persons dealing in rubber and for the 



