3 
12. Convictions were obtained in 40 out of 42 cases taken to court, the 
fines inflicted amounting to $887 in addition to $240 compensation for damage 
to the forest, and $25 realised from the sale of confiscated property. Cases 
were compounded only in Malacca, where 22 cases were dealt with, and 
compensation of $478 accepted. In the Dindings $33 were paid for breaches 
of permits to exploit forest produce, and $2 were realised by the sale of 
seized property in two undetected cases. At the close of the year two cases 
were pending. 
13. Squirrels did very considerable damage to the seed crop of gutta- 
percha in the Ayer Kroh plantation, and shooting them had little effect. 
Rhodaneura larvae did a small amount of damage in the gutta-percha 
nursery, and a few trees in the plantation were attacked by borers. The 
most serious damage so far reported is due to the presence of resam, which is 
spreading to the drier portions of the Ayer Kroh plantation and the Sungei 
Udang Reserve, and against which remedial measures have not yet been 
devised. 
14. In the Tanjong Burong Reserve in the Dindings several patches of 
pure lenggadai forest died, but no signs of disease were discovered by the 
Mycologist to whom specimens were submitted. 
IMPROVEMENT OF FOREST. 
Natural Reproduction. 
15. Dipterocarps are reported to have flowered and fruited freely in the 
Dindings; Keruing and Meranti Rambai Daun fruited plentifully, and 
Merawan to a limited extent in Malacca; and Meranti flowered well in the 
Bukit Panchor Reserve in Province Wellesley, but it is not yet known 
whether seed resulted. About 30 taban trees bore a moderate crop of fruit 
in the Ayer Ivroh plantation ; elsewhere it failed to flower. Mangrove re- 
production in the Tanjong Burong Reserve wms rather below the average. 
Plantations and Cultural Operations. 
16. 1 he gutta-percha and rubber plantations in Singapore were main- 
tained at a small cost of S32, but no tapping was done owing to the depressed 
state of the rubber industry. 
17. Considerable attention was paid to gutta-percha in Malacca, and 
m ore would have been done if seed had been available. Naturally grown 
seedlings were collected from the Ayer Kroh plantation, and about r6 acres 
of Para rubber were underplanted with them in baskets at intervals of 6' x 6 f . 
Efforts to improve the soil by growing green manures were only partially 
successful, but on the whole the seedlings did well. A small nursery was 
established at the Sungei Anak Ayer Bengkuang, and 1,2^3 seedlings from 
2,010 seeds sown survived at the end of the year. The total cost of these 
operations, including the removal of 32 superfluous Para rubber trees, was. 
$194, which is very heavy. 
18. In the Telok Bahang Reserve in Penang 514 gutta-percha seedlings 
were moved from overstocked to blank areas. In the same reserve a small 
experiment at a cost of only 84 was made in the planting of bamboo, for 
which there is a considerable demand, met at present chiefly by imports from 
Kedah and to a small extent by the little that is grown in kampongs. If 
bamboos can be grown cheaply they should be profitable to the Government 
and of benefit to the local population. 
19. The mangrove plantations in the Tanjong Burong Reserve in the 
Dindings were increased by 71 acres at a cost of $4,07, but owing to damage 
by crabs replacements on a large scale will be necessary and further expen- 
diture be incurred. Attempts to protect the seedlings by planting them in 
sections of bamboo failed; the crabs climbed the bamboos and did damage 
above them, and, if there was room, took up their permanent habitation 
inside. ^ Fifteen acres of the plantations of 1921 which had been ravaged by 
crabs were re-stocked. The total cost of the work was $300. 
Vjx 
