392 
1898. Mr. J. C. Willis in his tapping operations used “a clay 
“ gutter made round the tree about six inches above the 
“ ground so arranged as to catch the milk/’ the other 
“ requisites ” were “ a % in. chisel a wooden mallet, and 
“ a number of clean coconut shells.” 
Yours truly, 
H. R. Rutherford. 
RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF DIPLODIA. 
A planter writes as follows: 
“Dear Mr. Ridley, 
This morning I have sent you a case containing a dead Hevea 
tree. On the 6th inst. I found on the Estate a patch of about l /z acre 
on which all the trees — about 40, 2% years old Hevea trees were 
dead or dying. The trees had apparently been attacked by a disease 
taking its rise in the fresh shoots and spreading downwards through 
the branches and the stems. I saw the same trees a week before I 
discovered them attacked and know surely that they did not show 
any sickness then. The attack has thus been very sudden and 
severe. I eradicated all the sick trees and burned them. 
Perhaps this is the branch and stem disease, mentioned in the 
Bulletin No. 6 of the Department of Agriculture, at any rate it ap- 
pears to be a serious one.” 
No doubt this is the Diplodia , but the specimen never came to 
hand. 
COCONUT CULTIVATION IN THE F.M.S. 
Mr. L. C. Brown has brought out an useful article on this subject 
as one of the F.M.S. department of Agriculture Bulletins. Though 
only consisting of nine pages, it contains in a few words a consider- 
able amount of information as to selection of sand, cultivation 
returns and expenses in a handy form for any would-be planter to 
get an idea of what is to be done and how he can start his plantation. 
There is a large opening for a complete and up-to-date volume 
on the subject of this most important industry. The only work of 
the kind is the last edition of Ferguson’s all about coconuts and this 
useful little work might be ten times larger with the general informa- 
tion on the Coconut tree and its produce that we now possess.— -Ed. 
PERSONAL. 
Mr. T. Main left the Botanic Gardens Department on the 20th of 
June last to take charge of a Rubber Estate near Ching, Malacca. He 
had been in the Gardens Department of the F.M.S. when he joined 
, v ^ the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, on April 1st 1908. He is succeeded 
by Mr. J. A. Anderson, formerly employed in Kew Gardens, who was 
7V> appointed on July 29th, 1910.— Ed. 
