26. Various small fires occurred in the Dindings and Penang but the 
damage caused was insignificant. 
27. Crabs as usual did some damage to planted bakau seedlings in the 
Tanjong Burong reserve in the Dindings. The sea is eroding the forest in 
the north-west of this reserve from Sungei Bruas to Sungai Banting, a 
distance of about three miles. A strip of forest chains wide was washed 
away during 1930. 
SILVICULTURE. 
(i) Natural Reproduction. 
28. Except in some parts of Malacca, the year 1930 was not a very good 
seed-year. In Malacca of the dipterocarps kerning fruited prolifically, parti- 
cularly in the Batang Malaka, Bukit Sedanan and Ramuan China reserves, 
and meranti in the Bukit Sedanan and Bukit Senggeh reserves. Mcrbau 
fruited well in Ayer Panas and Bukit Sedanan, while quantities of 
freshly-germinated seed of kempas and rengas were found in the Bukit 
Sedanan and Sungai Udang reserves. Taban fruited in May in the Telok 
Bahang reserve in Penang and in August in the Ayer Kroh plantations in 
Malacca. It is interesting to note that mahogany flowered in the Ayer 
Kroh plantations. Scraya fruited in the Bukit Timah reserve in Singapore. 
The Dindings report is vague, but in the latter part of the year meranti 
tembaga , merawan , penaga , sepctir, scraya and rengas are said to have 
fruited. 
(ii) Planting and Cultural Operations. 
29. No new planting was done in Penang. The plantations in Bukit 
Goa Ipoh and Bukit Langkap, referred to in paragraph 24 of the 1929 report, 
were abandoned on the revocation of those reserves. 
4 
30. In the Dindings an area of 1 acre in coupe 1/27 of the Tanjong 
Burong reserve, which had failed to regenerate itself naturally, was planted 
with bakau m inyak by patrol guards. The seedlings were all badly attacked 
by crabs and only 57 were alive at the end of the year. 
31. In Malacca the plantations at Ayer Kroh are reported all to be in 
poor condition. The m'erbau and penaga plantations of qi| acres were 
maintained at a cost of $339. 
An enumeration of all the trees in the plantations was made for $11. 
A sum of $170 was realized for the right to tap the Para rubber plantation 
and a further $121 from royalty on firewood and sale of poles. 
32. In Singapore the Para rubber plantation at Y eo Chu Kang was 
leased for 4 months only; the revenue realised being $120 and maintenance 
costing $248. 
(iii) Regeneration Fellings. 
33. These fellings are designed, by allowing the removal of unwanted 
species in the form of poles and firewood, to increase the proportion of 
valuable species, which are left to seed up the blanks caused by the removal 
of the unwanted species. Fellings of this type were in progress over a total 
area of 1,568 acres in the Pantai Acheh, Tasek Gelugor and Telok Bahang 
reserves in Penang and Province Wellesley. 
(iv) Regeneration Improvement Fellings. 
34. In places where there is no market for firewood it is not possible to 
get inferior species removed by contractors and it is therefore necessary to 
effect their removal by means of departmental fellings and girdlings. These 
operations are known as '‘regeneration improvement fellings”. Schemes 
for work of this kind are now in operation in the Dindings and Malacca, 
the former having been newly started during the year, 
