525 



The chief data required may be the cost of the labour so that 

 methods may be cheapened or the improvement of the plant so that 

 bigger yields may be obtained. All of these factors in experimental work 

 make it imperative that those carrying on any experiment should be close 

 to the plot where it is growing, and that the laboratory where plants can be 

 examined, soils tested, etc., should be as near as possible to the work. 



To take an example, in the case of experiments as to tapping 

 rubber. The latex must be measured accurately as soon as it is taken 

 from the tree, the amount of caoutchouc and water in it estimated and 

 the amount of dry rubber eventually obtained recorded. Or, in the 

 case of a manurial experiment, chemical analysis is required to obtain 

 information as to the improvement of the soil. 



The experiments which have been started on a block of a little 

 over 100 acres surrounding the laboratories and offices of the depart- 

 ment have been carefully planned and the results will be accurately 

 recorded. Knowledge gained by an experiment cannot always at the 

 time be put to economic use, but though this is so it does not follow 

 that this knowledge is not of great value, as it may dovetail in with 

 other facts learnt by experimental means and help to solve some im- 

 portant economic problem. 



Every agricultural country has its peculiar climatic and soil con- 

 ditions, and the Federated Malay States differ very greatly from any 

 other country. The conditions of alternating sunshine and rain which 

 obtain, point to methods which may not be sound for other countries, 

 where with greater rainfall and with long droughts methods may be 

 useful which are not necessary or beneficial here. 



The various experiments which have been initiated and are being 

 carefully carried on are described in detail in the report of the Sup- 

 erintendent of Experiment Plantations, Mr. J. W. Campbell, who 

 deserves great credit for the rapidity and care with which he has cleared 

 the land and laid it out with the various products with which experi- 

 ments are being made. It is too soon to discuss the posssiblities of knowl- 

 edge gained by the results of these experiments, but the green manure 

 plots show every sign of proving to the practical planter that the present 

 mode of cultivation of rubber by keeping the soil free from all vegeta- 

 tion is a most expensive process, and at the same time does not give the 

 best conditions for the rapid and healthy growth of the rubber trees. 



When the experimental plots are sufficiently advanced to demon- 

 strate any of the points desired to be proved either negatively or in 

 favour, opportunity will be afforded for planters to have the methods 

 which have been followed explained to them in situ so that they may 

 see for themselves the results. It is always easier to prove to the 

 practical man the advantage of any new departure in agricultural meth- 

 ods by showing him it on a plot of sufficient size to satisfy him of its 

 being a proof of its practicability on a larger scale. 



The plots of camphor show that this plant will grow in Malaya at 

 sea level with great vigour. My experience of this plant in Ceylon was 

 entirely different, there the most vigorous plants were some thousands 

 of feet above sea level, but the growth of the trees in Batu Tiga and 

 Kuala Lumpor plots has been so extraordinarily rapid that there is no 

 doubt of the suitability of this climate to the cultivation of this plant. 



