6 
Roads were extensively and well repaired by the Public Works Department. 
Naval or Military bands played in the Gardens on six occasions. 
Palms were given free to the Raffles Museum, and a hedge of Duranta to the 
Union Jack Club. The number of plants sent out was 4,635 and of seeds 248 packets. 
Labour was thus utilised: — for pot-plants at the rate of 8.84 men per diem, for 
cleaning roads 6,47, for lawns 6.6 1, for bedding 3.91, for nurseries 3 04, for sweeping, 
2.65, for caring for the trees 1.83, for rockeries r.il, for cleaning the lake 0.78, and 
unclassed 1.80. 
Economic Garden. 
No planter can cultivate food crops without suffering from larceny: it is a curse 
common to the East and West Indies, which limits the planters' operations: and in 
the Economic Garden as the attention to food plants has increased, so has the trouble 
from pilfering fingers which scratch under the arrowroot plants for ripe tubers, take 
ripe fruit of which the seed is wanted, and now particularly steal yams. In 1917 
there were yam thefts on six occasions, thefts of Indian corn, of durian fruits, of 
ginger (the whole stock), of pineapples, and of other produce such as plantain leaves, 
done by day and by night, on week-days, but especially on Sundays. How is it 
possible to ascertain the yield of races when these thefts recur ? A guard costing $200 
per annum has had to be instituted against them. 
Rubber tree No 27 fruited for the first time since it was marked down and put out 
of tapping for selection. Its seeds were carefully collected, and have given a supply 
of seedlings. Tree No. 610 has not fruited yet, These with No. 1267, newly selected, 
appear to be the three trees of most promise. 
Tree No. 1844 on the other hand has been marked down for removal. It is 
believed not to be Hevea brasiliensis , but some allied species of inferior worth which 
might conceivably pollinate the good trees and so deteriorate their seed. It gave 
a few seeds in 1917 ; and four seedlings have been raised. When it is seen that these 
are established, the mature and now flowering tree will be removed from among the 
good rubbci trees. 
A public trial of the Ilcken-Down process of preparing rubber was made between 
October 24th and 31st, with the result that the process gave five per cent more rubber 
by weight than the acetic acid method as practised in the Gardens. The chemical 
value of the rubber has not been ascertained yet. 
Remarkable success was achieved with a race of the Rozelle from the Philippine 
Islands. It grew 6 — 8 feet high and bore freely. 
In January, the Singapore Cold Storage Company sent to the Gardens for 
trial a sack of locally made bone meal. It was applied to rubber seedlings and had 
a good effect temporarily : and it was also applied to yams, the result being a gain of 
18 per cent in one race, a second and control experiment being rendered useless by 
thefts. 
Caryocar nuciferum , the Butter nut, fruited for the first time. Pentadesma 
butyracea , the Tallow tree, bore very heavily, but it was most difficult to preserve the 
seeds from squirrels. 
5,708 pounds of rubber were made, 
100.628 seeds of Hevea brasiliensis sent out, and 
11,050 seedlings of Hevea brasiliensis , 
29 packets of seeds other than Hevea , and 
2,539 economic plants in pots. 
Labour was utilised as follows : — for rubber-tapping and preparing at the rate of 
9.05 men per diem, for cultivation 8.13, for the grassy slopes 6.68, for pot-plants 2.10, 
in nurseries 1.68, in seed-collecting 1.53, on trees 2.04, for sweeping 0.69, on roads 
0.85, and unclassed 0.80. The labour put into rubber-making, including cultivating, 
cost $1,978. 
Waterfall Gardens, Penang:. 
The rainfall in the Waterfall Gardens was normal, and normally distributed. It 
was 116.08 inches, and there were 182 rainless days. 
When in the third quarter of the year labour began to desert, for a short time it 
was difficult to keep the lawns mown and the stream banks tidy. There was 
never in the year any spare labour for the completion of the Upper North Road. 
