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the efforts of planters to obtain more Tamil labour and a stream of 
Chinese sinkehs reduced prices to a more normal level. Malay boys 
of 12 years of age are able to earn 40 or 50 cents a day as tappers, 
and work is over by 10-30 or II a.m. 
The formation of companies continued with unabated activity 
and there are now 35 companies at work in Malacca with a capital of 
over $15,000,000. Several large blocks of lalang land— formerly 
tapioca estates— were taken up on special terms as to premium and 
rent. It has been practically- shown that lalang land can be brought 
into a state of cultivation without excessive expenditure, and Govern- 
ment will be able to demand for the future a small premium. The 
leading company is the Malacca Rubber Plantations, and the directors 
and managers have done much in 1910 to consolidate and improve 
its position. It is a matter for regret that in the case of one qompany 
floated at the zenith of the boom the capitalization is much inflated. 
It is estimated that about 100,000 acres will be planted with rubber 
by the end of IQII. 
One would really have liked a fuller report of the Agriculture of 
Malacca than this, which, short as it is, however, gives some idea of 
the vast progress made in Malacca since the cultivation of rubber 
was started. 
Tapioca is said to be “ exhausting to the soil ”^nd naturally the 
amount of material taken out in removing the roots is so much loss 
to the soil, but there is no reason why some of the actual waste 
should not be replaced on the land. There is, as nearly always has 
been, a great feeling against tapioca as a catch crop, based originally 
on certain very bad cultivation, but it must be remembered that there 
are not a few thriving rubber estates which were started with tapioca 
as a catch crop. 
The statement that it has been found an active source of Fomes 
does not seem ever to have been proved. At present we have not yet 
seen a sample of tapioca attacked by Fomee. This point should be 
investigated. It is not usual for a hard wood-eating fungus like Fomes 
to attack a soft pulpy thing like a tapioca root. 
It is quite clear that the cultivation of rice and means of dealing 
with the pests of it requires much attention. In former days District 
Officers used, we beleive, to report to the Resident Councillor as to the 
state of local crops from time to time. These reports were, however, 
never kept or put on record, we believe. They would have been in- 
valuable records to any Agricultural Department investigating the 
state of cultivation in previous years, and in working out the causes 
of disease. 
