5 
Economic Garden. 
An area on the hill top of about seven acres has been cleared, and stumping has 
been done over the larger part of it, with the intention of planting fruit trees. Against 
this planting a collector was sent to Malacca, where with the kind assistance of the 
Divisional officers, Messrs. M. SHERWOOD and F J. MORTEN, he obtained durian seed 
from selected trees. Seeds of other fruit trees have been obtained from Penang and 
Singapore. And there is ready now a satisfactory stock of young plants. Fruit-trees 
have been obtained also from the Bureau of Agriculture, Philippine Islands, and from 
Mr. M. G. REGNARD, Mauritius. Planting-out will be commenced as soon as the land 
is ready: but it is desired to terrace it first for the retention of soil. 
An appeal may be made here for help in the work of building up an orchard for 
selection purposes, namely, that those who know of the whereabouts of the most 
excellent of fruit trees would be so good as to inform the Gardens department. 
Mr. A. S. Haines has been so kind as to send several fruit trees from Kuala 
Kangsar. 
The collection of pisangs in the Garden has been augmented ; and as the older 
plants fruit their proper Malay names are attached to them. 
During the year 48 packets of economic seeds were received together with 2,318 
durian seeds, 189 young plants and 175 tubers. 
Block 7 has been laid out in beds carrying samples of local sugar-canes, the 
Sansevierias, patchouli, Andropogon Martini , and Hedychium coronanum. Across the 
sago land behind it (blocks 8-1 1) a new drain has been cut, which converges on to the 
road-side drain through block 12, and discharges into it at the extreme north-east 
corner of the Garden. Much is hoped from this drain ; for the drains of the old 
system on account of the angle at which they discharged, were always blocked by silt 
after flood water had come down the side of the Bukit Timah Road in any quantity. 
The rubber trees except those of block 12, were tapped in rotation. The good 
trees were marked by a green cross and the very bad trees by a red cross. This is 
the commencement of the selection work mentioned in the last report. 
Most of the Eucalypts raised from Penang seed have been planted out in the 
Economic Garden, either in front of the Tamil cooly-lines or on the east boundary. 
From the Department of Agriculture, Java, selected coffee seed was generously given ; 
and from the Department of Gardens and Forests, Hongkong, seed of Aleurites 
Fordii. A good supply of seedlings from both has been raised, African yams were 
received through Kew, from the Gold Coast and from Southern Nigeria, and some 
Indian yams and Fijian yams from the Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens, 
Calcutta. These were grown, first, immediately behind the Director’s house ; but when 
the crop mature-!, two-thirds of the whole collection, viz., the races of Dioscorea alata 
and Dioscorea aculeata, found a place in block 14. Also in block 14 have been 
planted patches of Derris elliptica and Dolichos Hosei. 
Latex was supplied to three experimenters. 
4,292 lbs. of rubber were made, 
219,000 seeds of Hevea brasiliensis sold, 
18,400 seedlings of Hevea brasiliensis sold, 
48 packets of economic seeds other than Hevea, sent out, together with, 
450 large seeds, such as coconuts, Elaeis , etc., 
1,094 economic plants other than Hevea. 
Waterfall Gardens, Penang. 
During 1915, on the foundations laid in 1914, as described in the last report, a 
granite dam of three steps was constructed. But on October 1 Oth, heavy rain wrecked 
it by eating under the foundations which had stood for a year. A considerable amount 
of stone, partly in wire cages and partly loose, had been thrown into the stream bed 
above the dam against any scouring action ; but it did not suffice : the scour went 
down not less than six feet, shifting a boulder of about 60 cubic feet of granite from 
under the centre of the structure which then fell in by its own weight. It has been 
decided that on a bottom so soft, a further attempt at making a rigid dam will not be 
justified. But instead, as it is absolutely necessary to control the stream at the point, 
stones in wire cages will be used. There stands thirty feet higher up the stream a part 
of the masonry of the dam erected in 1895, which had a life of thirteen years; but to 
restore it would not serve any purpose in preventing the fretting of the banks 
immediately above the Central Bridge, 
