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AGRICULTURE. 
Rubber .—At the beginning of the year the price of plantation 
rubber was 2/3 per pound. It reached its highest point, 3/11, at 
the end of the year. Shipowners took advantage of these prices 
to raise the freight to Europe from 78/- per 50 cubic feet to 
137/6. The profit that still, however, remains to the planter has 
been such as to create a demand for land that is straining the 
resources of the land officers. It is very noticeable too how 
much better the estates are maintained and clean-weeded than in 
the past, and how the importance of thinning out of trees is 
becoming realized. 
The insistence of the war demand has helped “ Plantation 
Rubber ” in its rivalry with “ Fine Hard Para.” Manufacturers 
have been compelled to lay aside their aversion to trying 
“ Plantation ” and appear to be satisfied with the result of their 
trial. At the beginning of 1915 “ Fine Hard Para” stood, as it 
had done persistently for the preceding eighteen months, at a 
considerable premium above “ Plantation.” Early in the year 
the two rivals drew level, and now plantation is leading—though 
the lead is small. 
1 he establishment of a rubber market in Singapore and 
enang has also helped plantation rubber. Large ? forward 
contracts between rubber estates and rubber manufacturers are 
.? ' L ° mt “on, and ln these days when standardization is still far 
sellers stendwd °‘ ;y ‘° b ° th **** the buyer knows the 
9 Slid!' 6 dl - reC i Q S fi eS ° f , rubber t0 America have increased from 
7915. 3 m 1913 ’ l ° 4,510 t0nS in 1914 ’ and 21 ’ 075 t01 '3 in 
of which Tor//,° rtS fr ° m thS u° lony amonnted to 38,283 tons, 
of which 12,824 tons went to the United Kingdom, 1 998 tons 
the U U nTted a stat U s n ofA’ U 3 ? tons to Japan, and 21,075 tons to 
the United States of America. Most of this, of course, is rubber 
impci ted from the Malay States and Netherlands Indies 
Unfortunately there is no record of the amount of rubber actu-dlv 
obtained from the estates in the Colony. actually 
his r-fce"'T/; he n a l ay i is . f ivi ng up the hereditary cultivation of 
is race. It is sad, but with rubber and coconuts showing their 
present profits, it cannot be helped. From rice, a Malay mthl 
expect, if the season did not fail, to make with, he united 1 bou 
of ns wife and family, a bare livelihood : a small rubber ^plantation 
.Yields lum enough to make him a comparatively rich man • and 
instead of the dried fish and the cloth garment that were all that 
ibr COl lf d Tv 7 a -f IC ?" sr ° wer ’ he eats iln P°rted rice and dresses 
Uisclf and his family in silks. Such of the rice-fields as lr » nnt 
ssr “ ji " E “•* “ ,,d ™ 
^uconuTS. 
r-s “, d n ?° : *? "* of S'pS. 
irrw- ' mV 16 frelglt 1° t ' ur °P e rose from 39/- per 12 cwt to 
£JdDe e S. f ° r tHe year W6re 77,381 t°“ s ’ mostly to 
The oilmiUs in Singapore and Penang only supply the 
to Europe ^ marketS> “ d llttie ’ if a ”>’ °f thei^oil goes 
Genera/.—-Nutmegs are going out steadily: cloves more 
s owlv. The fruit crop of 1915 was good in the north but in 
Singapore not uniformly good. Areca-nuts have done well 
nicupples in Singapore have been abundant, the prices delivered 
at the Canneries falling as low as $8 per 1,000. 
P«sfs.—Parties of men were engaged throughout the year in 
“th$4 oTin ml'; destruct,0n ’ at a C0St of ^ 317 -“B compared 
^ I 
It is believed that the measures taken have decreased their 
nu m be is considerably. The damage done by them to crops 
(rice and coconuts) has been very small. No other pest of 
cultivation has been unusually prevalent. 
Cl 
