trees will be ready for tapping. The latex is coagulated by boiling, 
but this must be done gently and can only be done after the ad- 
dition of water. It is advisable also- to stir the mass while boiling 
slowly to prevent the formation of a porous mass in which portions 
of uncoagulated latex may be included. After coagulation the 
rubber must be carefully washed. 
So little is known at present as to Funtumia under cultivation 
that any notes made by cultivators are worth recording, but as far 
as our experience of Funtumia in the Straits is concerned one can- 
not say that it grows nearly as rapidly here as it appears to in 
Africa, 
PARA RUBBER IN COCHIN CHINA. 
In the Bulletin Economique of Hanoi, (1903, No. 1 ^) } M. Haff- 
NKR gives some notes and photographs of Para rubber cultivation 
in Ong-iem, Cochin China. A thousand trees were planted in 
October, 1898, in different parts of the Experimental grounds, (7) 
in very wet places flooded for a part of the yea& these' trees all 
died; (2) in similar ground well drained, moisture at 60 centeme- 
tres depth in the dry season; (3) in land a metre higher; (4} on 
the slope of a hill, a little less sandy than the others, where traces 
of moisture are only to be met with at a depth of 6 to 10 metres 
in the dry season. 1 he best result has been obtained from the last 
planting. This is certainly not what one would expect. Another 
remarkable feature about the plants in this region is that they 
shed all their leaves and remain bare for four months in the dry 
season January to April, budding again on the appearance of the 
rains. Judging from the photographs and measurements the trees 
seem fairly up to avrrage growth, but they are too young vet (o 
form an estimate ot their value as rubber producers. — Ed. 
UNITED PLANTERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
Report for 1902. 
Gentlemen, 
Your Committee have now the pleasure to submit for your 
consideration the Sixth Annual Report of the UNITED 1'LANTERS’ 
Association, F. M. S. 
During the past year, there have been four Committee and three 
General Meetings at which there has been a fair attendance We 
recommend that in future the Committee should meet regularly 
every month, and that there should be an ordinary General Meet- 
ing every second month. 
The Selangor Planters' Association was dissolved during the 
year under review, and we regret that the Negri Sembilan Planters’ 
Association is no longer affiliated. The members of the former 
body have, however, elected to retain their membership of the 
Unitep Planters’ Association, and we sincerely trust that Negri 
