AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES, 
No. 7.] JULY, 1903. [VOL. II. 
PLANTING AND AGRICULTURE 
in the Federated Malay States in 1902. 
From the Resident-General’ s Annual Report for the year 1902, 
the following particulars are extracted : — 
As regards the planting interest, further experience confirms 
the belief, or rather endorses the certainty, that the combination 
of climate and soil in these States pre-eminently adapts them for 
the cultivation of rubber (Para and Rambong) and coconuts, two 
products the demand for which is annually increasing, while the 
success of sugar cultivation has already been proved. 
Para . — Export of Para rubber in quantity has not yet com- 
menced and we may have to wait a year or two longer for that 
consummation, but meanwhile we know that our samples realise 
high prices in England and that additional outside capital is com- 
ing in to extend the area of land under this cultivation. 
The Chairman of that influential body — the United Planters' 
Association of the Federated Malay States — writes in his official 
report for the year 1902:' — 
It is a significant fact that from Ceylon comes the most 
pronounced inclination to invest in this product. Ceylon 
planters and capitalists, with the decline of coffee, have had 
little cause to congratulate themselves on their connection 
with the Malay Peninsula, yet it. is undoubtedly owing 
chiefly to the visits to, and personal inspection of, our rub- 
ber estates, by some of their foremost men, that they are 
willing and anxious, if they can get an opportunity, to put 
more money in. Such support, in your Committee’s opi- 
nion, is of infinitely greater value to the country and to the 
enterprise than would be the influx of capital where expert 
knowledge on the part of its investors was absent. As far 
as it is possible to judge at present, the Malay Peninsula 
appears to possess every factor necessary to the successful 
cultivation of rubber. Climate, soil, transport facilities, the 
quality of the product, and the yield of the trees, leave little 
to be desired. As regards labour, this country is, at any 
rate, infinitely better off than any other with which we will 
