Oct. 1, 1902] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
259 
DESTRUCTION OF INSECTS. 
We have received from the Academic des 
Sciences, a brochure by M. M. Vermoral 
and Gastine on their latest experiments lor 
the destruction of the Pyral". Finding any 
pulverisations with hquid insecticides, soapy 
emiilsions of nicotine petroleum, or pyreth- 
rum, etc., useless, as these do not reach 
the insects wrnpped up in the tender leaves 
by means of a web they weave for them- 
selves, they tried arsenical solutions, 
salts of baryum, etc., in order to poison the 
leaves. But the wise creatures avoided these. 
Finally they had recourse to gas and toxic 
vapours, operating under conical metal bells, 
inside which increasing doses of gas were 
let out. But even these were unsatisfactory 
in their results. So they made an entirely 
new experiment with heated air. The 
pyrales, exposed to a hot vapour of a 
temperature of iS to 50 = centigrade, died 
in 3 or 4 minutes, They are killed at a 
much lower temperature (45 C) if exposed 
for 10 minutes. Towards 40° C, they struggle 
and come out of their retreats, and the 
tender foliage is not destroyed at that tem- 
perature. The method of operation is turther 
described. Metal bells were used and flexible 
tubes conveying watery vapour. 
self-planted trees in the palaqninm reserves. It has 
been found necessary to close, to a great extent, the 
mangrove (fire-wood producing) foreatH in Perak, which 
prove to have been over-exploited. These forests 
are being examined, earveyed and reserTed. In due 
course working plana will bo framed and the foreata 
will bo worked and become a source of considerable 
revenue. 
Government Railways.— Open Lines.— The mileage 
open for traffic at the end of the year was miles 
(Perak 147, Selangor 97) as oompared with 234 miles 
in the previous year. The nett revenue was !S1,079,118, 
showing an increase of fS43,750 over the results of the 
year 1900. The gross earnings were $2,240,822, and 
the gross expenditure $1,261,704. The proportion of 
working expenses to gross receipts was 53'99 per cent, 
as compared with 50"41 per cent. The worst percen. 
tages were shown by the new Province Wellesley 
section 91'77 and the new Larut and Erian section 
91-94, 
The Bailway capital account of open lines is 
given as : — 
Perak .. $10,637,387 
Selangor .. 7,396,624 
PLANTING AND PROGRESS IN THE 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL REPORT FOR 
THE YEAR 1901 
By the Resident- General W. H. Treacher, 
C.M.G. 
MrsiNG. — As regards the chief industry, tin mining, 
■while the average price of the metal for the year was 
lower than in 1900— $67.56 per pikul of 133i lb 
(£108.15 per ton) against S74.15 (£132 per ton)— the 
output was : — 
Pikula. Tons. Value. 
1900 .. 713 000 42,440 $52,800,000 £5, .500,000 
1901 .. 789,000 46,960 53,600,0C0 5,240,000 
The out-turn approximated to that of 1896, which 
ranks next to 1895, in which ypar the largest record 
for the Federated Malay States was obtained, pikuls 
82o,000, the sterling price being £02 per ton only, or 
S32 a pikul, The labour force is returned, approxi- 
mately, at 170,000 against 168,000 in 1900. 
Tapioca cultvation is extending in Negri Sambilan 
and a condition attached to the alienation of fresh 
land for this product is that the planter miist intro- 
duce some " permanent " form of cultivation, such 
as coconuts or rubber. Tapioca cultivation has been 
commenced in Pahang and will be encouraged. In 
Perak, especially, a considerable area of native-owned 
land is planted up with fruit trees. There is a ready 
sale for fruit to the miners, the trees require or re- 
ceive little attention, and this fact indisposes the 
native to the more arduous labour of paddy ooltivation. 
The total forest revenue for the year under 
review was $287,542 and the expendiiure $97,789. 
For 1899 the receipts were $212,730, and for 
1900 §242,936. The estimated rtvetiue for the pre- 
sent year is $260,000. It must be recollected that 
since the commencemeut of 1901 the collection of 
gutta percha Pfilaquium has been prohibited. The 
department is now intcy alia energetically engaged in 
continuing to search for and reserve tracts known to 
contain palaquium trees, in planting up and supply- 
ing from nurseries, and in facilitating the growth of 
31 
$18,534,011 
and the return earned thereon during the year was 
5'82 per cent, being for Perak 4'72 and for Selangor 
7'30per cent. The average cost per mile of construc- 
tion and equipment of open lines to the close of 1901 
is reported to have been 15175,754 — this includes the 
cost of constructing wharves, piers, buildings, sidings 
and the purchase of land at six ports, the expendi- 
ture at Port Swettenham alone amounting to 
SI, 108,791. The new rates and fares referred to in my 
last report came into force during the year. The 
present rates are said to compare favourably with 
those charged on the Ceylon Government Railway, 
though the cost of maintenance and working is higher 
than in that Colony. The figures of capital account 
above given do not include the large sums assigned 
for the extensions in hand. 
Construction. — The estimate for the cost of the 
179 miles of extension, the construction of which was 
commenced in 1896, put by the revised estimates of 
December, 1900, at §16,472,982 has been raised by 
$389,778 so that the estimated cost per mile is 
S 100,380. Of these 179 miles there were open to traffic 
at the end of the year 82 miles. The total expendi- 
ture on the extensions up to 31st December, 1901, is 
given at $14,103,743, all furnished by current revenue 
of the States. 
Towards the close of the year arrangements were 
made for the engagement of a party of surveyors from 
Australia for the survey of the proposed extension 
from Seremban (Negri Sembilan) through Kuala 
Pilah to Kuala Gemas, on the Johore boundary — 
some 54 miles, A provision of §87,000 has been made 
for this survey, which is now in hand. With the 
completion of the extension to Kuala Gemas there 
will remain only the State of Johore to be traversed 
say 120 miles, to complete the line from Penang to 
Singapore. Prom Kuala Pilah will probably be the 
most accessible route for railway extension from the 
main west coast line into Pahang. 
Administration.— A General Manager of the Feder- 
ated Malay States Railways was appointed during 
the year — a long-needed step in the right direction. 
The appointment was conferred upon Mr C Edwin 
Spooner, lately State Engineer, Selangor, from whose 
annual report I have gathered the information sum- 
marised in these pages. Mr Spooner w«s transferred 
to the service of Selangor from that of Ceylon in 
1891, and among other works carried out the Knala 
Lumpur Water Supply, erected the admirable block 
of Government Oifices, Kuala Lumpur, and engineered 
the tine road over the Semangko IPasa from Selangor 
into Pahaug. 
Public Works. — The total expenditure on Public 
Works, exclusive of the cost of establishments was 
§3,600.000, 
