419 
with a view to obtaining' knowledge as to planting methods 
in the Federated Malay States. Messrs J. L. Shand, T. C. 
Huxley, G. C. Alston and T. S. Rays (Rotterdam) and 
others making use of the Department of Agriculture, 
Federated Malay States, which is becoming more widely 
known as a source of information in regard to agricultural 
and botanical questions; and its foreign correspondence has 
increased to a considerable extent. 
This report has been written rather hurriedly, as I am 
leaving the Federated Malay States, being transferred to 
the West Indies, and I take this opportunity of thanking my 
colleagues in the department, many planters and others who 
have helped me in my work. 
I regret extremely leaving Malaya with its unique 
climatic advantages, where agriculture has such a prosper- 
ous future in store. 
My work of organising and equipping an Agricultural 
Department has been most interesting and not entirely 
without success. 
The Department of Agriculture is now becoming or- 
ganised and is a working wheel in the mechanism of the 
country. 
The future of Agriculture in the Malay States is a 
bright one, and the Department of Agriculture will have a 
large share in helping on the prosperous career of rubber, 
coconuts, rice and many other profitable cultivations, both 
existent and to be. 
J. B. CARRUTHERS, 
Director of Agriculture 
and Government Botanist, F. M. S. 
REPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT MYCOLOGIST 
FOR THE YEAR 1908. 
Para rubber (Hevea braziliensis), the principal cul- 
tivation owned by Europeans, has been fairly free from 
fungi during the past year, except of a disease which attacks 
the root, finally killing the tree. This is wide-spread. 
There was probably not an estate free from it, some suffer- 
ing more than others ; but the percentage of trees affected 
is everywhere comparatively small. The disease is caused 
by Fomes semi tost us, and is reprobated as much for the 
extra labour demanded to suppress it as for the actual loss 
in trees it causes. I published a paper in the “ Agricul- 
tural Bulletin,’ ’ for November, 1908, describing the disease 
