( 3 ) 
Leaving aside strictly agricultural methods, it is 
permissible to doubt whether perfection has been 
attained in agricultural economics and organisation 
on the majority of estates; whether, for example, 
attention to the harvesting powers of workers would 
not be quite as important as attention to the yielding 
powers of trees. A similar point is the economic 
size of plantations; it would seem at least possible 
that more economical working might be attained by 
amalgamations of smaller properties. 
The working out of these latter problems, however, 
would appear to be outside the scope of an Agricul- 
tural Department. 
Selection of Although much has been said and 
Hevea. written on this subject, in the absence 
of experimental proof of the success 
of the methods wdiich have been suggested and 
adopted from time to time, it still presents a vague 
aspect. Thus, the problem of Selection of Hevea 
is still new and relatively unexplored territory and 
sorely needs the application of all our knowledge 
of genetics and horticulture in order to produce high 
yielding races of rubber trees. “ Hevea ” is pro- 
bably the most recent plant brought under cultivation 
and as such has not yet been affected by the selection 
which man applies, consciously or unconsciously, to 
all useful plants. The general method of thinning 
out, by selection based on yield, will slowly but 
surely tend to improve the yielding capacity of our 
trees; though, being perennial plants, capable of 
living to a fair age, no appreciable effect is likely 
to be detected within two or even three generations 
of man. It is still open to doubt whether seeds of 
the best types of Hevea were imported into the 
East in the first place, but it cannot be disputed 
fcz-4*/ 
