AGRICULTURAL, BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
No. 4.] APRIL, 1907. [Vol. VI. 
Annual Report of the Botanic Gardens, 
Singapore and Penang, 
for the Year 1906. 
Staff. 
1. — There was no change in the Staff during the year, except 
that an apprentice Sub-Overseer, byname of Silvester Paul, was 
taken on in May. The Superintendent of Penang went on sick 
leave for a year, in March, and it was suggested that the Assistant 
Superintendent of the Singapore Gardens should take his place 
during his absence as has had to be the system, previously, but, in 
view of the Agricultural Exhibition in August, and the heavy 
increase of work of the department due to the rapid development 
of the agriculture of the Peninsula of late years, it was found 
impracticable to reduce the staff to the Director only, so that 
Mr. Peel (Ag. Collector of Land Revenue) superintended the 
work of the Penang Gardens. The Clerk of the Department, 
Mr. J. S. Isaac, and the Artist, Mr. C. De Alwis, were on leave 
for three months each during the year. The coolies were as poor 
a lot as ever, the demand for labour on estates at ^higher wages 
than is allowed for the Botanic Gardens made it impossible to 
secure men other than sickly and worn-out labourers rejected by 
planters. 
Visitors. 
2. — A very large number of visitors, sometimes as many as 
six in a morning, came during the year to consult the Director, 
chiefly on the subject of rubber planting. The opening up of the 
Federated Malay States, due to the immense development of 
rubber cultivation, has immensely increased the number of visitors 
