325 
trees and have not succeeded in finding a single large seedling or 
sapling of this species. The feeble natural regeneration of hard- 
wood trees in evergreen forests is a danger that cannot be over- 
estimated and, so far as I know, is one of the most difficult prob- 
lems that the forester has to face. Experience in tropical ever- 
green forests is very limited, the bulk of the Indian forests being 
deciduous, much less crowded, and having conditions more suitable 
to natural regeneration of valuable species. • 
( 6 ) — Artificial Reproduction. 
In Perak, 15 acres of waste mining land were planted with Ficus 
elastica (rambong). 'I he merbati plants in Pondok Tanjong show 
good growth, but chengai is slow. The total cost of maintaining 
the area of 441 acres was $6,935, or ft 5 per acre, but this includes 
cost of planting 15 acres. 
In Selangor, blanks in the Circular road Plantation were planted 
up and a fire (race 10 feet wide made round block 5 and part of 
block r. About 22 cart-loads of night soil were deposited per day 
throughout the year in this plantation, which is planted with casua- 
rinn, tambusu (Fagraea frag ran s), glam {melaleuia leucodendron) 
and Eugenia grandis. The cost of maintaining this plantation was 
$938, total area 189 acres, or about $5 per acre 10,713 seedlings 
were planted out during the year. 
(c ) — Cultural Operations. 
In Perak, 40 acres were cleared of undergrowth at the Waterfall, 
Taiping, to assist the young taban. 
The cost of above and upkeep of original area, 30 acres, was 
$1,655, * n Troilah (Batang Padang) 1 00 acres were cleared of 
undergrowth at a cost of $2,559 or $ 2 5 P er acre - result is 
most satisfactory, and the area cleared is found to he full of young 
getah taban trees of the best species (Palaquium gutta). 
In Selangor, in the Kan tau Panjang reserve, 200 acres were sys- 
tematically gone over at a cost of $1,983, lines 4 feet wide being 
cut through the area 33 feet apart and young taban seedlings 
planted in these lines 30 feet apart — i.e ., 40 to the acre. These 
seedlings are taken out of the forest near at hand, planted in a 
nursery and put out as soon as they are strong enough. 
Eight thousand seven hundred and eighty-one seedlings were 
planted out, and 3 119 dead seedlings replaced by new. 
Transplanted from the forest into nurseries 2,646. Only 4 per 
cent, of plants removed from the forests to the nurseries and then 
planted out failed, whereas about 20 per cent^. failed when planted 
direct into the lines, without being first kept in the nursery. This 
bears out Mr. Curtis's opinion on this subject. 
(d ) — Ex per imen Is. 
Burchard's system of reproducing taban was successfully tried 
in Selangor — viz., bv laying a seedling on the ground partially 
covered over, from which new shoots spring up vertically, and cut- 
