Buildings, &r'c. 
Five new Forest Stations have been built or re-built at a cost of $25 each. 
Two new boats were purchased in December, one for the Changi Reserve, the other 
for the Jurong and Pandan Reserve. 
Farming. 
The experiment of letting the few still existing cultivated encroachments on 
the plan adopted by the Dutch in Java, has met with a certain amount of success. 
The lessee receives the crops at a fair rent, undertaking to protect and cultivate 
the young timber trees planted among the crops and to keep the whole free of 
lalang and fern, so that after the lapse of a few years, the ground formerly covered 
with crops of pepper or gambier is covered with timber trees, at a very small cost to 
the Government. If when an encroachment is found the crops are merely destroyed, 
the ground would speedily be covered with lalang and it would be expensive work 
to clear it again for planting. The lessee of the crops keeps this down for the 
benefit of his cultivation, and at the same time manures the plants to a certain 
extent, the advantag*es of which are reaped by the young trees. 
The Dutch in Java, I am informed, have adopted this plan to a very large extent, 
all the land which is let by the Government to cultivators, is let on these terms, and 
it might be worth while, when opening up new country in the Peninsula, to planters 
to ensure a future supply of timber by adopting this plan on a large scale. 
By the letting of cultivated encroachments and the sale of produce, a revenue of 
$142 was obtained as staffed below : — 
Gambier encroachment, Bukit Mandi, let for . $15 
Two pepper encroachments, ,, „ .60 
Durian trees, Bukit Mandi, crops let, . . .. . . 5 
„ Forest Nursery, , „ ... .. 7 
„ Bukit Timah, „ . . . .50 
Lalang, three acres, let, ,, . ... . . 3 
Sale of pepper from small encroachment. ... ... 2 
$ ! 4 2 
Planting. 
At Chan Chu Kang a batch of eight coolies was employed in planting ten acres of 
waste ground with Renghas seedlings ( Gluta Renghas), and two men planted two acres 
of th<? same seedlings at Bukit Mandai. In both places the seedlings are very healthy 
and strong and growing well. The timber of Renghas is very valuable as it is hard 
and of a fine red colour, like mahogany, but the very poisonous black resin which 
exudes from the tree when cut makes it difficult to work. A fire-guard has been 
commenced along the edge of the Bukit Mandai Reserve, at the 12th mile on the 
Kranji Road, and a large number of seedlings of various trees have been planted. 
There is a large tract of lalang here which abuts on the main road, which has been 
fired more than once by passers-by, so it was found necessary to clear this and plant 
it with trees in order to prevent this occurring again. 
There is still a good deal of difficulty in getting seeds of the better class of tim- 
bers. Many of the trees rarely fruit, and of some such as kranji (Dialium indicum) , 
tampenis ( Slaetia ) and oaks and chestnuts, as well as the Gutta gfips ( Willoughbeia ), 
the fruits are devoured by the monkeys before they are ripe. Again, in Singa- 
pore and other accessible places, almost all the valuable timber trees have been in 
past time so extirpated that it is difficult to find now any old enough to give fruit. 
Consequently it is necessary to procure seeds from far distances, from country less 
opened up, as Pahang. 
Fires. 
The total number of fires which occurred this year within the reserves 
was 12, one at Jurong burnt down three acres of lalang, another at Pandan antj 
Jurong destroyed about 30 acres of lalang and brushwood. At Bukit Timah some 
brushwood and some newly planted seed lines were burnt. At Seletar about 30 acres 
and at Ang Mo Kio about 70 acres and at Bukit Panjang, Chan Chu Kang, Kranji 
and at Bukit Mandi smaller patches were burnt, all consisting of grass fires, with 
which in some cases small trees and bushes were destroyed. The rapid and easy 
ignition of grass on hot days, makes it exceedingly difficult to detect the offenders 
or to prevent the destruction. 
