296 
Of this acreage rather more than one-half is in bearing, and 
I value the whole roughly at 20,000,000 dollars. 
Some idea of the local importance of this industry may be 
gathered when I mention, taking an average of 40 nuts per tree 
(a very reliable return when the trees have reached maturity) 
that if the whole of the yield of the above acreage were converted 
into copra it would be capable of producing 800,000 pikuls ; to 
sav nothing of the large and very valuable stock of fibre that 
would be available for the manufacture of coir matting, rope, etc. 
Copra is at present fetching nearly $11 per pikul, and owing to 
its strong statistical position the price is more likely^ to rise than 
otherwise. 
I now refer to the States in regular order. 
State of Perak. — The staff was the same as in the previous 
year, consisting of five Sub- Inspectors, stationed at Telok 
Anson (Lower Perak), Kuala Kangsar* (Upper Perak), Bagan 
Serai (Krian, Selinsing and Selama), Batu Gajah (Kinta), and 
Matang (Matang and Larut), respectively. 
Cultivation. — The total area under coconuts in the State at 
the end ol 1906 I estimate approximately at 53,395 acres, the 
district of Lower Petak alone contributing nearly 30,000 acres. 
These figures show an increase of 2,695 acres over the preceding 
year, made up from the various districts as follows : — 
Lower Perak 
Kuala Kangsar (Upper Perak) ... 
Krian, Selinsing and Selama ... 
Kinta 
347 acres. 
155 » 
U75° „ 
333 „ 
Matang and Larut 
no 
J J 
Beetle Pests. — The damage done by these insects during 
the year throughout the State was practically insignificant. 
Kinta was quite free from the pest, and the only trouble I had 
at Lower Perak was at Pasir Blanda, afterwards referred to. 
At Kuala Kangsar about 120 trees had to be treated, and at 
Matang about 472 beetles were destroyed. In the Krian district 
the catches were heavier, the attacks being almost entirely 
restricted to the Chinese sugar estates. One thousand eight 
hundred of the black beetles were collected and 201 of the red 
beetles, 
Lower Perak. — The Sub- Inspector has continued to do 
some useful work. The coconut plantations Owned by the natives 
are in better condition than in the previous year. As a whole the 
kampongs are kept in very good order and the owners are taking 
