7 
Para rubber .— The demand for seed showed no signs of diminishing. During the 
year 145,600 seeds and 6,400 plants were distributed as follows: 6,000 plants and 
46,750 seeds to the Colony, 79,350 seeds to Selangor, 17,500 to johore and a few to 
Sumatra, in exchange for Gutta Percha, and to Pahang. 
The number of planters in the Colony does not increase and the demand for seed 
in the early part of the year when the crop was at its greatest was not large. 1 he 
interest in its cultivation generally, has however, shown no signs of diminution and is 
only checked by the insufficient supply of seed. 
• The trees fruited more or less all through the year, the largest amount of seed 
being obtained in September and October. 
The chief enemy complained of by planters was the termite, Termes Gestroi , 
which has done a good deal of damage in different parts of the Peninsula to young 
trees. It coats the outside of the tree with mud up to a height of some feet, and also 
burrows up the centre. This term be however is an inhabitant of dense jungle rather 
than of cleared ground and will probably disappear altogether when the ground has 
been under cultivation for some time. 
Further experiments were made in tapping trees, and in the preparation of t lie 
rubber by Creosote. It was found that one or two drops of Creosote dropped into 
the latex prevented decomposition and no odour was produced during drying. It 
made no difference in the colouring of the rubber which eventually became as dark 
as rubber not so treated. 
The Creosote however had a tendency to make the rubber sticky, and more than 
one or two drops produced an objectionable amount of stickiness. Whether creosot- 
ing the rubber improves it from a commercial point of view remains to be seen. 
In July an average sized tree measuring 60 feet in height, with a circumference 
at the ground of 5' 5* and a clean stem up to 10' 3" from the ground, approximate age 
1 2 years, was selected for tapping with a view of seeing what could be got out of it 
irrespective of any conditions, in other words to bleed it to death if necessary. The 
experiment began on the 5th of July, and was carried on until the 27th September, a 
period of 84 days on which date the latex ceased to flow. Throughout such a long- 
period as might be supposed all kinds of weather was experienced, from very dry to 
very wet. O11 the whole, however, it can be said that the prevailing conditons were 
comparatively dry, for out of the 84 days on 71 very little or no rain fell at all. The total 
rainfall registered during the full period being i 8'07. The method of tapping was 
that usually practised, viz :. — longitudinal incisions of a V shape fed by similar incisions 
about a foot apart. The receptacle in which the latex was collected was a small 
cigarette tin, with a lid on in such a way as to admit of the latex running in whilst 
keeping out the rain, notwithstanding this, however, a certain quantity of water did 
get in the tins during wet weather, as will be seen by the great difference in weight 
between the wet and dry states of the rubber ; the total in the wet state being seven 
and-a-half pounds and in the quite dry three pounds only. The greatest yield in 
twenty-four hours was bounces on July 12th, and the smallest 4 an ounce on the 28th of 
the same month. On four days out of the total there was no flow of latex at all, of these 
four days, three were wet and one dry. The quality of the rubber was necessarily of 
a scrappy nature, especially when quantities of less than an ounce was taken per day, 
whereas quantities over an ounce consolidated into nice little cakes. As regards 
coagulation no difficulty whatever was experienced, a few hours being sufficient to 
coagulate the latex to the consistency of soft cheese, and as regards the offensive 
odour due to the decomposition of the proteids it was found that a couple of drops 
of Creosote was sufficient to entirely get rid. of the bad smell. On the whole the 
experiment may be said to have proved — -ist, That three pounds of dry rubber can 
be obtained from an average tree — whether this quantity can be taken yearly 
remains to be seen — that it could be taken every other year, one is safe in predicting 
from our knowledge gained of the time other trees have healed of their wounds. 
2nd, That it does not appear to injuriously affect the tree in the slightest. 
Insect Pests. 
A number of injurious insects were reported on by planters and remedies for 
them suggested. Among the important ones were Batocera octomaculata , a large longi- 
corn beetle, the grubs of which bore up the stems of various species of Ficus , and 
among others the Rambong, being a very large insect it is easily caught and destroy- 
ed, but in large Rambong Estates it might prove very destructive. The life history 
of the Crinum caterpillar which destroys the Crinums cultivated for ornament was 
worked out, it proved to be the larva of a noctuid moth Calogramma f estiva . 
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