It will be seen by the above that this tree yielded freely atter the third opera- 
lion and continued to do so up to the end of the tapping and that there was no 
reason to discontinue the tapping on account of falling oft in the quantity o 
htex the only reason for doing so being that the cuts were by this time from three- 
quarters to one inch wide, and although they heal rapidly it was not thought wise 
to make them wider. New bark has completely grown over the cuts of the first 
three tappings. It would appear that October to December ^re better monOis for 
tapping than April and May, but too much importance should not bt attached to an 
experiment made on a single tree either as regards the yield or best months fo 
tapping [ simply record the facts for what they are worth, but as regards yield i 
s'hould'be considered iu conjunction with the result obtained in Perak with a hundred 
trees the oldest seventeen years old, and this should 1 think induce capitalists an 
Ihe Government to consider whether this tree has as yet received the attention ,t 
deserves In the Consular Report already referred to, it is stated that hundreds o 
miles have to he traversed to reach the rubber districts in Brazil, and although then- 
are probably fifty million acres of forests at present being worked for rubber it is 
estimated that for Districts where it is fairly plentiful, the average is only one Hevea 
Uee to ever^ two acres, and the estimated yield one to one and-a-hal kilos per 
annum In'a few roughly calculated tests made here I found half a pint (10 fluid 
ounces) of latex gave three ounces of dry rubber, and coagulated rubber weighed wet 
lost about 50 % of its weight in drying. 
Gutta Percha. 
>6 In iBqq it was decided by Government to form plantations of Gutta Percha 
iu Malacca, and In May last I was instructed by Hia -Honom ge A cting Governor 
to take down 500 young trees and plant them in Bukit Breang Reserve. hese are 
the half of a batch of seedlings raised m Penang. Since then Mr. H. v.. Hll.L hi. 
report on the forests of the Colony has advised that plantations on a large scale 
should be marie both in Penang and Malacca, and by way of a beginning the remain- 
i o will be planted in Penang at the proper season. Consequent on this recom- 
nfndation a good deal of attention has been devoted to this subject during the past 
few months. None of the trees in Penang have fruited this year nor have we been 
ble™0 obtain seeds elsewhere. Mr. DERRY, Superintendent of Government Planta- 
tions Perak, wrote me in November that a tfee growing m the Resident s giounds at 
Kuala Kan-sar was in fruit, but 0.1 a subsequent visit, a month later, he found that 
squirrels had eaten them all with the exception of two fruits which he sent me foi 
• herbarium specimens. These are the only fruits i have seen or heard of his season. 
VU the Dichopsis are slow growers and transplant badly, great care will therefore 
be necessary in p reparing plants and laying out plantations Young plants . the 
Nursery under most favourable conditions have grown about a foot in height in a 
vear" 'l he tree referred to as fruiting at Kuala Kangsar is said to be eighteen years 
•old and is twenty-five feet high, with a girth of twenty-four inches at three feet from 
the ground As it is uncertain when we may be able to obtain seeds in suffic 
numbers to plant on a large scale we have been trying recently in various ways to 
propagate from cuttings. ‘ It is too soon yet to say what percentage will grow from 
-ultino-s but the prospect of raising a large stock by this means is not encouraging 
Some species of Dichopsis may grow from cuttings fairly well (though seedlings, of a 
if obtainable should have the preference) but D. gutta or D. oblongifolia, whicheve 
the Penang plant may be, and there is some doubt about it, is a most difficult subjec . 
To obtain cuttings and information as to the quantity of gutta to be obtained, &c., w c 
cd down one tree in the Highland Reserve and collected the gutta in the native 
manner the result being one and-a-half pounds of first class gutta pert a. ns re 
was d feet high with f moderately clean straight stem 39 inches m circumference at 
five feet fromthe ground, and at least forty years old. I do 
nr the result satisfactory and some other and better way of extract n g 
to be deviled Tapping in the same way as rubber trees is not applicable to 
libs tree and the solution If the problem will probably be some system of cutting the 
plantations' at a comparatively early age, when they will coppice, and treating ar ■ 
and leaves at a central factory ; unless the leaves alone are found to be of sufficient 
value and produced in sufficient numbers to render plantations remunerative 
Dichopsis gutta occurs only at low elevations and it is desirable to introduce for. 
planting the upper portions of Penang Hills the species that occur on , ei " a ^ 1 ~ 
‘ t ooo feet This is known locally as “ Gutta Taban Putih and is I believe D. 
pustulata, I have recently had an opportunity of observing this tree on the aipmg 
