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growth a certain proportion of rubber trees in varying stages of 
development or decrepitude. So far indeed has the eagerness of some 
persons outrun their discretion that our officers continually find 
rubber being planted by occupiers who hold their lands by virtue 
of temporary licenses only and are liable to removal at the end of 
every year. In such cases it is of course neither the intention nor 
the wish of the Government that the land should be planted with 
products of a permanent nature, and some difficulty is being ex- 
perienced in impressing upon these people that their endeavours to 
join the ranks of the rubber estate proprietors are not justified by 
the conditions of their tenure. 
On the whole therefore it may be assumed that there are a very 
large number of rubber trees growing all over the State which have 
not been and cannot well be taken into account inframing the above 
estimates. 
The arrival of additional areas at a tappable age and the un- 
precedented rise in the market value of the product have continued 
to largely augment the amount of rubber exported. 
The figures relat 
ng to the past four years are these : 
1906 
190;' 
1908 
1909 
681,040 lbs. 
M98,75 1 „ 
2,128,176 „ 
4,209,733 „ 
The duty received was $76,553 in 1908 and $250,530 in 1909. 
There are those who hold the opinion that it would have been 
preferable in some instances if young trees had been allowed another 
year of growth before being operated on, but the market value of the 
article has been a powerful factor in convincing proprietors and 
managers that early tapping is stimulating to future development. 
With the assistance of the Director of Agriculture much value- 
able work has been done in the direction of combating and restricting 
pests and diseases, and no enemy* to the rubber tree has made such 
headway as to cause serious alarm. The white ant and the fungus 
known as“fomes semitostus” have their origin in the decaying 
stumps and roots of the jungle timber which preceded the rubber 
— their presence is usually discovered in time by careful periodical 
examination, and the damage, if any, is of local incidence only, but 
the radical and somewhat expensive remedy of extracting and re- 
moving all such timber is now being not uncommonly resorted to. 
The attention of planters has been directed to diseases of the 
shoots and branches, and a knowledge of the appropriate remedies 
promulgated by means cf pamphlets and lectures by the Director 
of Agriculture. 
At the instance of the United Planters’ Association an important 
measure was enacted at the close of the year providing for the licen- 
sing and supervision of all persons dealing in rubber and for the 
